Bleach Story Idea Dump
by MasterQwertster
Summary: Like the title says, this is a series of first chapters to stories I'd maybe write. I don't want to have a bunch of unfinished stories on my profile, so I'm dumping ideas here to receive encouragement for the ones people want.
1. A Lot Alike, But Very Different

**Author's Note**

Like the title and summary say, this is an idea dump. It'll be the first chapter or so of story ideas I have and a quick explanation of the concept. You are free to encourage me to write more of the story_(I would say the whole story but I never seem to have ends in mind)_ or you can pm me and ask to use the story yourself.

Anywho, here's the first one.

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**A Lot Alike, But Very Different**

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_You've died here, so I'm sending you to somewhere you can live. Good-bye, Ichigo-san._

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Tatsuki moved toward the front of the Urahara Shoten where the humming was coming from. She had woken up in one of the back rooms and had failed to find anyone who was conscious yet. Orihime had been in the room she had awoken in and Chad had been in the room next door. All the other rooms she checked had been empty of people. Tatsuki had begun to believe that Urahara and his goonies had run away when she heard the humming start. Expecting to find Urahara, maybe Ururu since she could now hear a broom sweeping the floor, she was surprised by what she found: a man with orange hair and his back to her sweeping the shop.

"YOU TRAITOR!" she yells as a battle cry as she kicks the back of his knee in. "HOW DARE YOU COME BACK HERE!" She moves around to the front and sucker-punches him in the nose, hard.

"Ow! Quit it!" he whined, bringing his hands up to his nose. Tatsuki ignored this and kicked him in the ribs before losing a flurry of punches and kicks on the cowering _traitor_ before her. "Ow! Stop! Uff! Ugh! Come on! Yow!" Then, in a small opening, he inscribes a glowing, light-blue circle in the air with his finger. Tatsuki pauses to look at it for a moment, but it was a moment too long. Nine glowing blue darts fly out of the circle, pinning her to the wall by her yukata with one under each armpit, one over each forearm, one on either side of her hips, one on the outside of either knee, and one at mid-shin level between her legs.

"LET ME DOWN, YOU BASTARD! I'M NOT FINISHED WITH YOU YET!" she roars from her place on the wall, losing a string of profanities to emphasize her point.

The man slowly uncurls from his place on the ground, uncovering his face. Tatsuki stops struggling and looks more closely at him, noticing things she didn't before her sudden attack. His shoulders are broader than Ichigo's, not by a lot, but it's noticeable. He is more muscular than Ichigo if the glimpse of his chest at his shirt collar is anything to go by, yet still slender. As he pushes to his feet, Tatsuki also notices that he is several centimeters taller than Ichigo. His hair is the same shade as Ichigo's and the same spikey style, but much longer and more rugged looking. She catches sight of a small, black tie holding it in a low ponytail that reaches between his shoulders. His face is leaner with almost no baby fat on it. But, the largest difference Tatsuki notices between him and Ichigo are his eyes. Where Ichigo's eyes brought to mind unrelenting stone, this man's eyes were more reminiscent of melted chocolate, warm and gentle.

"Ah, sorry." he apologizes as he rubs the back of his neck. "I wasn't really sure how else to make you stop without hurting you." His eyes briefly flicker up to hers before looking away. "Um, since you've calmed down now, I'll let you go." He snaps his fingers and the shining blue darts shatter out of existence, dropping Tatsuki back to the floor. "Right, so I'm Hakuba Tsukimaru, nice to meet you." He holds out a hand for her to shake, still avoiding her eyes.

Tatsuki warily eyes his hand before taking it and giving it a good shake. "Arisawa Tatsuki." she gruffly introduces herself. She stares at him a moment longer and his eyes flicker to hers and away again once more. "What, afraid to look me in the eyes?" Tatsuki jabs at him, that habit is really annoying her.

His head snaps up a bit and he stares her in the eyes. "Ah, um, sorry. It's just… you remind me of someone I used to know and I kinda messed up with them big time. I guess you could say I'm still nervous about that and your attack didn't really help with that. Sorry if that made you uncomfortable, Arisawa."

Tatsuki stares him down until he begins to fidget a bit under her scrutiny. "Call me Tatsuki. Somehow, you calling me Arisawa doesn't feel right." She snorts. "Probably because you look so similar to that bastard Ichigo. Anyways, where'd you come from?"

"Oh, um, I'm from a town a very long ways away from here. I kinda got sent here by my… uncle to help out with the whole Aizen problem and a few… personal reasons. Anyways, I'll be staying at the Shoten unless I figure out some other accommodations. Um, are you sure you want me calling you Tatsuki? I mean, I don't mind exactly, and you're free to call me Hakuba or Tsukimaru, but I just want to make sure you're sure about that, Arisawa."

Tatsuki blinks as Tsukimaru starts to ramble towards the end. "You're lucky I spend so much time with Orihime and her rambling, otherwise I wouldn't have understood the end of that." Tasuki notices a flicker of… something in Tsukimaru's eyes as she mentions Orihime. "And yes, it's _fine_ if you call me Tatsuki. Like I said, it just seems weird somehow when you call me Arisawa. Hmm, I suppose you could be useful in the fighting. At least, as long as you don't _always_ cower like that when attacked." She jibes at him.

He splutters. "I– wha- No! I just wasn't expecting to get attacked for sweeping and I don't like hitting girls or injured people." he defends.

"Oh! So you think girls are weak, huh?" Tatsuki leers at him.

"What? No! I was just raised to be respectful to women!"

Tatsuki's next taunt to him, because it was too funny watching him get flustered, was cut off by the shuffle of feet and a soft, sleepy, "Tatsuki-chan~" followed by the arrival of a slowly shuffling girl with auburn hair. Her left arm hung limply at her side, a cast around it, and there were bandages over her left eye and most of that side of her face. There was also a swath of bandages around her neck.

"What are you doing out of bed?" Tatsuki scolds her. "You're seriously hurt. You should be resting. _In bed, _Orihime."

Orihime laughs nervously and rubs the back of her head with her uninjured hand. "Well, I woke up because I got hungry and Tummy-san demanded food. So I sat up and looked for you, but Tatsuki-chan was gone! Then I heard you yelling your battle cry and I thought the little blue men had come to kidnap you. When you stopped yelling I got really worried that they might have defeated you and were dragging you away! So I got out of bed and came out here." She finishes with a smile. "Who's your new friend? He looks a lot like Kurosaki-kun, but very different from him too."

Tsukimaru stiffened as the attention was brought to him. Tatsuki wonders what that emotion that flitted across his face as Orihime turned to him was. It hasn't there long enough for her to get any read on it, so she instantly puts herself on guard because the last person to do something like that tried to choke Orihime to death only a day ago, Tatsuki too, but that was the less important part to her.

Tsukimaru wasn't really prepared to see her again, not after the way he failed her before. Yet, he couldn't be happier to see her alive, not exactly well, but she was _alive_. The small sparks of hope, created when he arrived from sensing what he had lost existing once more, burst into a small flame at the sight of her. They'd been right. He was a dead man walking back there, but now that he was here, his heart could beat once more because there were the people worth living for in his world again.

Tsukimaru quickly becomes embarrassed as he realizes he still hasn't been introduced to her. "Ah, right, um, I'm Hakuba Tsukimaru, it's a pleasure to meet you." After he introduces himself his eyes flicker away from hers and he begins to fidget.

She smiles like the sun and he thinks _It's been so long_. "It's nice to meet you, Hakuba-kun. I'm Inoue Orihime." A small smile tugs at Tsukimaru's lips and she thinks that it looks good on him, wondering what he'd look like with a full smile on his face. He's handsome in a way that is alike yet different to Kurosaki Ichigo. Ichigo would always smile, wave, and look friendly. She'd always liked that about him. However, with recent events, she had realized it was a sham and she noticed it when she went back to those memories. His eyes were always calculating, there was no warmth in them. Tsukimaru though, he wore a fierce scowl, but his eyes betrayed him too. His eyes had ghosts in them, but somehow they were still warm and gentle. A promise of haven if you could get past the wall he put in place with his scowl. Their reiatsus were very different too. Ichigo's was fierce and gritty, like a strong wind filled with sand blowing against you, sharp and stinging. Tsukimaru's was warm and all encompassing, like a giant blanket being wrapped around her being, protecting her from the outside world. She had given up on Ichigo, he made it very clear he didn't want her, but maybe…

Orihime's stomach lets lose a loud gurgle, reminding the girl why she awoke in the first place. "Um, you two wouldn't happen to know where Tessai-san is, would you? He said if I got hungry that he'd make me something to eat." she says as a blush colors her cheeks in embarrassment.

"Oh, Urahara-san and the others went out to finish cleaning up the impact sight, make sure things are handled well or something along those lines. I was only half listening." Tsukimaru admits, rubbing the back of his head once more. "If you want though, I could make omelets or something. Um, you're welcome to some food too, Arisawa." he quickly adds on. She scowls at the use of her family name, but he ignores it. He can't call her Tatsuki, not until he feels ready to let go.

Orihime smiles again, bouncing up and down a bit. "Sure! Omelets sound delicious, Hakuba-kun! Right, Tatsuki-chan?" His heart warms seeing her just so _alive_ and he can't resist the smile tugging the corners of his mouth into a small grin once more.

Tatsuki sighs at Orihime's excitement over such simple food, but she's starving so "Sure. Why not? I just hope you can actually cook, _Tsuki-chan~ _" she sings out, a devious smirk on her face.

Tsukimaru sputters and scowls at her. "I can cook!" his indignant reply comes. "And don't call me Tsuki-chan! It's weird. Do it again and I'll drown your omelet in hot sauce." he grumbles, heading for the kitchen. Orihime practically bounces after him. Tatsuki sticks her tongue out at his retreating back before following him to the kitchen.

The kitchen was well kept and clean. The counters were made of a light gray granite and all of the appliances were neatly tucked away. Tsukimaru walked over to the fridge, pulling out a carton of eggs and popping its lid to check if there were enough for omelets. Satisfied that there was enough to go around he turned to the girls.

"Alright, we've got enough eggs for omelets. What do you two want on them?" he asked as he began to search the cabinets over and under the counters for a skillet.

"Cheese and green peppers please, Hakuba."

"Hmmm. I want cheese and green peppers, too. Ooh, and honey and wasabi and… um, no I think that's good. Thanks for cooking for us, Hakuba-kun!"

Tsukimaru catches Tatsuki's disgusted look at Orihime's choice of toppings and chuckles. "Okay! One cheese and green pepper omelet and one cheese, green pepper, honey, and wasabi omelet coming right up!" he lights the stove and places the skillet he's found on it. Then he pulls cheese, green peppers, and wasabi out of the fridge before searching the cabinets once more for honey. After he finds it, he goes sets it on the counter with the other ingredients and hovers his hand over the skillet to check if it's hot. The skillet isn't warm enough yet so he pulls a knife from the rack and starts dicing the green peppers and cracks the eggs into a bowl he pulled out while looking for the honey, whisking the eggs. He checks the skillet again before pouring the eggs in and carefully tending them, adding cheese and green peppers when the time is right.

"Here you are, Tatsuki. Inoue, I'll have yours done in a few minutes." Tsukimaru says as he plates the omelet and sets it on the table island in front of Tatsuki.

"There's no fork, smart one." Tatsuki sarcastically points out.

"Well then find one. I'm busy right now and you're perfectly capable." Tsukimaru grouches back.

Tatsuki sighs, but searches the drawers for the silverware anyways. Upon finding them she pulls out two forks, one for her and one for Orihime. When she gets back to the island, Tsukimaru is setting Orihime's omelet before her.

"Here. Fork." Tatsuki offers the fork to Orihime. "These better be good. You said you could cook, Hakuba." she says as she points the other fork at him.

"Uwaah~ It's delicious!" Orihime cries out, before quickly shoveling more into her mouth.

"Hey, slow down, Orihime! You're gonna choke if you eat it that fast!" Tatsuki nags her.

"But it's too good to be eaten slowly, Tatsuki-chan!" Orihime argues back, fork hanging out of her mouth.

Tsukimaru just laughs at the sight. "I think she can handle herself. If not, we can always use the Heimlich maneuver to help." He offers, a small grin on his face.

"You mean _I _can use the Heimlich maneuver. You're not touching her." Tatsuki imperially states.

"Yeah, yeah." He waves her off. "Eat your omelet before it gets cold."

Tatsuki digs in and has to admit it's a decent omelet. As she finishes, she hears the front doors sliding open.

"We're back~ I hope you haven't been getting into too much trouble while we were out, Hakuba-san." Urahara greats as he comes strolling into the kitchen. "Ooh~ omelets! Make one for me?"

"Tough luck, Urahara-san, kitchen's closed." Tsukimaru blandly states as he finishes drying the skillet, placing it back in the cabinet.

"But you made some for them~" Urahara whines.

"Yeah, and they're injured. You're perfectly fine. Make your own damn omelet." he says, breezing past Urahara. "I'm going out for a bit. I'll leave my gigai here." He slips out the door and out of sight. He needed some time to think and there's no way he could in a shop filled with the things he'd lost. _Hopefully a light patrol of the town and the air above the rooftops will clear my head. _He uses his modified combat pass to slip out of the gigai Urahara gave him and jumps out the window into the warm evening air.

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_Right, so the idea to this story, if you couldn't guess it, is that Ichigo has lost pretty much everyone, leaving him dead inside. Urahara, being the nice-ish person he is, sends him back into an alternate timeline so that Ichigo can live again. I was inspired by **Getting It Right** by _DUALITY x2 _(Space out all the caps letters)_ _and **The Dark Side of the Blacker Moon **by _AoNoBleachShoujo. _Both have some Ichigo in an alternate reality stuff to them and are really good, so I thought about doing my own spin on it._

**Please comment/review.**


	2. Letters Between Shinigami and Wizards

**Author's Note**

Wow! Double update, I'm on a roll! So here's another story idea. This one is a Bleach/Harry Potter crossover starting in book one.

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**Letters Between Shinigami and Wizards**

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_Dear Albus Percival Wulfirc Brian Dumbledore,_

_I'm writing you as I suspect you are currently quite worried about the location of one Harry James Potter, son of Lily and James Potter. I'm sure you are aware that he went missing a month ago when one Vernon Dursley and his family went on a trip to Japan. I'd like to assure you that Harry Potter was found within hours of his abandonment and taken into a warm and caring home. With my assistance, papers will be drawn up and Harry will be legally adopted into the family that found him. If, however, you would like to provide him with a different home, please contact me. If you are going to send him back to the family that abandoned him, forget it. His new mother is very protective of her children and likely to murder anyone who would suggest that he should be returned to the care of the Dursley family, or at least shoot them full of holes. Harry's been telling her stories of his miserable life with them and how it's so much better now that he has a new family. She is keeping him close and you would be lucky to touch him without her permission, trust me, I know. As I'm sure you are wondering, the family who is currently caring for him are _not_ wizards. However, they are not your average humans either, so do not worry about his safety. They've been killing things much more scary than any man could be for generations and I'll leave it at that. After all, we all have our secrets. It took me this past month to find out about you wizards and Harry's history. Since I'm sure you're wondering why we even knew to look, let's just say that our people are rather sensitive to those with supernatural capabilities. If you would like to discuss his schooling when Harry comes of age or anything else, please send a letter back with the cat that delivers this one._

_Sincerely,_

_ Kisuke Urahara_

Dumbledore looked down at the letter he had just read for the fifth time and back up to the black cat with golden eyes sitting on his desk that had delivered it. He had been putting as much time and effort as he felt could be spared without attracting attention to find Harry for this past month only to find this cat in his office with this strange letter in its mouth addressed to him. A four almost five year-old Harry had gone missing in June and when they had asked the Dursleys where he was, all they had gotten was a "Gone and good riddance." Severus had been particularly distressed at the loss of Lily's child and used legilimency to get their last memory of the boy. He discovered that the boy had been lost in the trains of Tokyo and the Dursleys had not cared enough to find him. It had taken some very serious negotiating skills to keep Severus from doing anything vengeful to the Dursleys for such a blatant act of uncaring. After that information was found, Dumbledore began organizing the search for Harry, but it was a long shoot. The trains went all over the city and even out of the city, not to mention that Tokyo was simply filled to the gills with people. Finding one person among millions is a nearly impossible task and Dumbledore had been slowly losing hope of finding the boy.

Now he had his lead, sort of.

This Kisuke Urahara character had been very careful to give no names but his own, no locations, and alluded to the existence of a different kind of human being with powers that were, apparently, not magic, but still quite powerful. He had also given a very clear threat from the woman currently mothering the boy, but no clues on who she was besides having at least one child of her own already and she was powerfully violent when feeling provoked. It really wasn't much to go on.

There was also the cat, and Dumbledore wasn't sure what to make of that. He supposed that muggles found it quite odd that wizards and witches used owls to deliver their mail, but he wasn't sure what to make of a cat that delivered mail. It just wasn't conventional for anything but delivering letters to close neighbors, or at least somewhere in the same town, not for delivery of letters halfway around the world. Besides that, the letter had been dated for yesterday and even the fastest of owls couldn't make such a long trip that quickly. Dumbledore supposed he could have someone tail the cat back to wherever it came from to locate Harry, but he wasn't sure what to do once Harry was located.

And that was the question: what to do with Harry now. The letter had made it quite clear that sending Harry back to the Dursleys would be met with excessive violence and there wasn't much of anywhere else that the boy could be sent. Hagrid would take the child in a heartbeat, but, as much as Dumbledore trusted him, he did not think Hagrid was suited to raising a child. Besides he wanted Harry to grow up away from magic so that the boy wouldn't be raised on fame. Harry wiykd surely learn of his fame living on the school grounds. It was one of those moments that he wished Sirius Black hadn't been arrested as he was sure that Sirius, while likely being a bad example for the boy, would have at least taken care of Harry as best as he could, respecting Dumbledore's wish to keep Harry away from fame. Probably. Well, it was either that or he would have used Harry to try and pick up witches. The man _was_ rather immature.

Dumbledore let out a soft sigh, looking at the cat now lounging across his desk, tail idly flicking behind it. He wished he had more information about this family Harry had been unofficially adopted into. If he knew that Harry would be safe from any Death Eaters that might make an attempt on him, he might be willing to let Harry remain with his new family. At the very least, harry was safe for now as he was sure that any of Tom Riddle's followers would have just as difficult a time as him in trying to find Harry.

Having come to his decision, Dumbledore pulled out a blank piece of parchment and a quill and began to write.

_Dear Mr. Kisuke Urahara,_

_I thank you for sending news of Harry Potter's current condition and am glad to know that he is doing alright. However, I am reluctant to leave Harry in the care of this family as I worry of what may happen to them if any of Lord Voldemort's followers were to learn of Harry's location. I would be put at ease leaving him in their care if I might meet them and see for myself that they are capable of defending themselves and Harry. It is not that I doubt your claims of strength, but rather that I'm not sure that you understand ours. I would, of course, wish for Harry to attend Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry when he turns eleven as it is one of, if not the best schools of magic and his parents also attended our dear school. I'm sure he'd do quite well here was he's of the proper age._

_Thank you for your time._

_Sincerely,_

_Albus Dumbledore, Headmaster of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry_

Dumbledore tucked the letter into an envelope, addressed it, and handed it to the black cat. The cat took the letter, jumped off his desk, and squeezed out of his office door.

The letter was sent. All Dumbledore could do was hope that the letter reached this Kisuke Urahara alright and that Harry Potter was truly safe with this family.

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_So there's a lot of Harry Potter/Bleach crossovers and I've thought about doing one myself. This is one of like three or four different versions of this particular crossover that I've come up with. You might get to see the others later. This particular version was inspired by **My Father Isshin **by _Zsugami Alba. _It's a cool little story where Harry grew up in the Kurosaki household. For mine, I just started with the thought of Urahara writing to let Dumbledore know Harry was alright. Then, I realized that a series of letters and what's going on at the time and the receiver's reactions would be a great way to write this story, so ta-da! _

_Remember, if you want me to start the "full" story now, you guys have got to tell me. Otherwise, I'm not starting any new stories until I finish **The Fire and the Flame** and I have no clue when I'll finish that._

**Please comment/review.**


	3. Amoung the Stars

**Author's Note**

Alright, idea three. I can't say I've seen many Bleach stories in this kind of setting, so it should feel somewhat original.

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**Among the Stars**

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"So, what can I do for you, Miss?" the man in a flamboyant pink overcoat and straw hat behind the desk asked. The desk was covered in paperwork and a bottle smelling of alcohol sat next to a name plaque that proclaimed it the desk of _Chief Commander S. Kyoraku._

"I need a bodyguard for my niece." the busty strawberry blonde states from her seat across from him, crossing her legs, a serious look so different from her usual bubbly personality on her face.

"You don't say. Lucky you, Gotei's a bodyguard company." Kyoraku jokes. "But back to your request Miss…" "Rangiku Matsumoto." "Miss Matsumoto. I'd be happy to hire out a guard for you, but you do realize this is the rookie base. Most of the officers here have only seen one, maybe two, if any, field missions. So you'll have to excuse me if I question that request a little."

"I'm well aware that this place holds mostly untested people, but that's what I need. Someone who hasn't made a name for themselves yet, someone no one will give a second thought to." she decisively states. "My cousin runs a big, intergalactic company based on Earth in Japan and I'm sure you know the prejudice and history that muddles that kind of work. Recently, there's been a few incidents that have put my niece in danger, so I'm looking for a little extra assurance that I don't lose her."

"I see. So you're requirements for hire are: no-name status, capable, and can pass for human, correct?" Kyoraku inquires, folding his hands on his desk. _If that's all she wants, he'd probably be a good fit._

"All of those and someone who is nice. My niece is a kind girl and I don't' want some rude, barbaric bastard hanging around her all day." Rangiku sniffs.

Kyoraku chuckles. "But of course, Ms. Matsumoto. I think I've got just the guy, Ichigo Kurosaki. He's a little rough around the edges, most bodyguards are, but he's a good kid. One of the best combatants we've had in quite a while. Knows Japanese too, so there's a little bonus for you there."

"How does he know Japanese? It's a language only spoken on world by original descendants. It's been kept secret for decades!" she asks, sounding a bit distressed.

"From what I've understood, Ichigo's mother was a Japanese woman and she taught him Japanese. Actually, because of his mother, he's got a technical residency on Earth, so he really is a good fit for your request."

Rangiku's eyes narrow, she's not sure if she should trust this kid he's recommending. "I want to see him in action, judge him for myself."

"Alright." Kyoraku taps at some buttons on the holo-panel behind his desk. "Hey, Romix. Do you have the video of the last time Ichigo squished your robots?" An alien with a mess of red hair on his head and cresting his neck, four eyes, and eight slender arms appears on the screen. His skin is a fleshy color and the face is rather reminiscent of an eel. He wears a grease covered gray shirt and goggles with several flip down lenses and is holding several different tools in his hands. There's a heap of metal and wires visible in the background.

"Ugh, of course I've still got'em, Chief." Romix replies in an exasperated tone. "Still need to figure out how to keep the carrot head from turning my babies into metal pancakes." He mumbles under his breath. "I suppose you want'em."

"If you don't mind sending them over, Romix." Kyoraku breezily replies, used to Romix's mood about his "babies" and their encounters with the "carrot head" as Romix so affectionately calls him.

A small camera shaped symbol pops up and Kyoraku taps on it. The panel splits into several screens showing different angles of a young man with spikey, bright orange hair wearing a black overcoat and pants with a white shirt underneath fighting six different robots with a pair of katanas. The boy dances through the rain of bullets the robots fire at him. Some of the bullets even seem to curve in their course towards him. He gets up next to a tall, bipedal robot and cuts its left leg out from under it, twirling around as it falls down and stabbing the core in the body, effectively turning it off.

"It's not so bad when he takes'em out like the other rookies. Replace the leg and core and she's good as new, ready for round two." Romix comments, voice cutting through the audio if the videos.

While Romix was adding his commentary, Ichigo moves back, dodging a spray of bullets. One of the robots fires a missile at him and he dodges to the side, placing his swords before and after the missile. He spins around and somehow the missile stays between the blades. When the missile is pointed back at the robot, the leading blade comes up and the missile continues forward, detonating against the robot and destroying its torso.

"Even that's not too bad. Practically expected when some of the rooks carry missile launchers of some sort." Romix once more commentates.

A low bent robot with blade arms advances amidst the bullets raining down on Ichigo, swinging for his waist. Ichigo jumps up and lands on the arm, bringing it crashing down to the ground, flattened and unusable.

"And that's where the problems start." Romix sighs. "He starts with one and then any that come after it get the pancake treatment."

Ichigo jabs his blade into the robot and, with the scream of tearing metal, it collapses in on itself, becoming more than a hunk of twisted metal. The last three chase him around for a little while, still never hitting him, until they catch him in a corner. Unexpectedly, Ichigo smirks at the robots. "You lose again, Romix." He jumps high into the air, above the tallest of the three remaining robot's head, spinning as he goes. As he reaches the peak of the jump, he seems to float for a second and the forming of a distortion can barely be seen on the screen in a ring around him. Then he comes down and the robots flatten in screaming metal as he descends. As his feet touch the ground, the sounds of rending metal stop and three pancakes of metal and circuitry are all that's left of the final three robots.

"I thought I had him once he was in the corner." Romix grumbles as the holo-panel switches back to a view of him and what can now be recognized as the remains of the final four robots. "That was five days ago and I've only just managed to pull one of them apart." His annoyance with the conditions of the defeated robots is clear. "So why'd you need to look at that anyway, Chief? You finally gonna get the carrot head outta here?" Romix asks in a hopeful tone.

Kyoraku laughs. Romix both hates and loves working with Ichigo. Hates it because Ichigo is the only rookie who can decimate his robots like that and loves it because of the challenge it presents to his mechanical expertise. "Maybe. I've got a client here looking to take one of our rookies out for work on Earth."

"I see." Romix nods. "Take the carrot head. The longest any of my babies have held out against him is four matches back around the time when he first showed up. Kid's a natural combatant and does great in the simulation runs. Bit short tempered with the snotty little pricks who believe in entitlement, bullies, and the like, but nice to the underdogs and super rookies." His voice is a bit strained as he finishes. "He's a good kid. Bust up any robots he comes against." Romix's eyes are watery and he sniffles a few times. "So take the carrot head, he's ready for field work if you ask me." He rubs under his eyes as he reaches forward, pressing a button causing the screen to go blank.

"Thanks for the voucher, Romix." Kyoraku mutters at the blank screen. He turns back to Rangiku. "So~ what'd ya think? Did he meet all of your requirements?" he inquires, a smile on his face.

Rangiku hums a bit, unsure of this Ichigo guy. He certainly looked capable with that psychic power or whatever of his, but that didn't really mean anything for his personality. _I want someone I can trust to actually protect Orihime, not someone who's just in it for the money._ The mechanic had given a brief personality description that seemed ideal for Orihime, but he was a grouchy old mechanic, not exactly the best for getting a personality read. "Can I talk to him? I'd like to ask him some questions and get a read for him myself."

"Sure. Nanao~" Kyoraku calls out for his secretary.

"What?" she asks in a sharp tone as she pokes her head into the office. Her black hair is in a low bun with the bangs tucked behind her right ear and she wears frameless glasses.

"Could you find Kurosaki for me, my sweet little Nanao?"

"I'm not your 'sweet little Nanao'." she blandly states. Rangiku giggles a bit at the blatant rejection. "Ichigo Kurosaki is in the open gym in the west building with most of the other rookies for the monthly hand-to-hand combat tournament." she reports, looking down at the book shaped tablet she carries.

"Thank you, Nanao. Now if you'll follow me, Ms. Matsumoto, we'll go catch Ichigo so you can ask him your questions." Kyoraku says as he gets out of his chair and heads for the door.

Rangiku follows him down the halls, noticing how most people they pass give a friendly greeting to their commander. They walk outside and across a common green to the building on the right. Kyoraku uses a security pass to open the door and leads here through more hallways. _This place is a maze_ she can't help but think.

"Here we are!" Kyoraku jovially announces, pushing open the doors and revealing the gym. There are punching bags and weight machines, open floor space and a small obstacle course, and in the center of it all is a roped off ring, like what is used for boxing or wrestling on Earth.

All of the people in the room are gathered around the ring, cheering and jeering at the two inside the ring. A slender girl with purple skin, feline eyes, short cropped black hair, antennas, and a tail is taking on a brutish behemoth who is all muscle with mottled skin of varying shades of brown and a heavy jaw with a pair of large tusks sticking out from the lower jaw. Both are wearing tank tops and shorts.

"Good afternoon, Sir." comes a calm voice from Kyoraku and Rangiku's left. Rangiku whirls at the sound of the voice and lays eyes on what looks almost like the shadow of an elf lined with red wearing a black tank top and sweats that practically blend in with his body. His eyes shine with a bluish-gray light. "I wasn't expecting you to come watch today's tournament. To what do we owe the pleasure, sir?"

"Afternoon, Shuhei. I've got a client here looking to take one of our rookies and thought Kurosaki'd be a good match. The lady would like to talk with him before she makes her choice, so here we are."

As Kyoraku finishes speaking, a cheer goes up as a loud thud is heard. When Rangiku looks over to the ring, the girl is standing tall and proud while the behemoth is flat on his face, probably out cold if his lack of motion is anything to go by. _Strong girl, maybe she'd…_

Rangiku's train of thought is broken as a skinny fellow with blue skin that is highly reminiscent of a monkey with his fur and tail, though the four arms throws it off a bit, jumps on top of the ropes, shouting out, "All right, all right! Everyone settle down, settle down! For the final match of today's tournament we have a new challenger! You've just seen her take on our Trogamin muscle man, Kroax. It's NEMARI ENYA!" Monkey boy whips the small crowd up and the purple girl, Nemari, Rangiku guesses, waves her arms up, encouraging the cheers. "All right, settle down, settle down! But can she defeat our reigning champ? Can she triumph over the carrot head? Can she beat ICHIGO KUROSAKI?" More noise rises up from the spectators, many yes's and no's, boos and cheers.

"You'll probably have to wait for the match to finish as I doubt the rookies would be happy with being jipped out of a new final match up." Shuhei says, leaning back against the door frame.

"I suspect you're right, Shuhei. Shall we go get a closer seat, Ms. Matsumoto?" Kyoraku asks. Rangiku just nods and they move closer to the ring.

"So, are jou going to geet in ze ring or are jou juz going to ztand zere?" Nemari asks with an accent rather similar to French to a boy with a draconic head, burnt orange scales, and plenty of muscle.

"I dunno if Trooma is gonna come in the ring, but I thought you were fighting me."

Nemari whirls around to see what looks like a human boy in the ring, lazily leaning against the ropes with his arms folded across his chest. Rangiku recognizes him from the video. It's hard not to with that bright orange hair. The closer view and white tank top with grey sweats allows her take notice of his physique. He's lean with a respectable amount of muscle definition. His movements are smooth as he unfolds himself from the ropes and stalks to the middle of the ring.

"Jou? Theez muz be a jhoke. Are jou telling me zat a hooman boy has been beating jou all?" Nemari asks in disbelief.

"You gonna complian, or are you gonna find out why I'm the champ?" Ichigo provokes as he takes up a ready stance and Nemari does the same.

"You wanna call this one, Chief?" Monkey boy asks.

"Sure, why not?" Kyoraku lazily replies. "You kids know the rules. No use of any capabilities beyond hand-to-hand combat. The match isn't over until someone forfeits or is out cold. The match is confined to the ring." Kyoraku raises one hand. "Ready, set, GO!" He drops his hand and the match begins.

Nemari darts forward with a jab and Ichigo dodges to the side grabbing her wrist and twisting in to flip her over his back in a judo throw. Nemari jumps with the throw and bends so that her feet hit the ground. She then twists around and uses his strong grip to pull him in close and rabbit punch him in the nose. He lets go of her wrist and staggers back. Nemari moves for the opening, placing a side kick into his stomach. Ichigo grabs her ankle and grins while his bowed head allows his bangs to hide his eyes. He tugs her forward and sweeps her other leg out from under her, letting go of her captured leg as she hits the mat. He crouches down, placing his foot against her throat, grabbing both her wrists in one hand, and leaning his supporting knee into her stomach.

"Yield." he commands.

She tries to kick his head, but he simply leans out of the way. She whimpers as he tugs her hands towards her knees, increasing the pressure on her throat and hurting her shoulder joints.

"Yield." he commands once more.

"Never." she spits out. It's obvious that she is having trouble breathing. He leans in more, driving his knee further into her stomach.

"You either yield or pass out from lack of oxygen. Your choice." he says nonchalantly. Nemari squirms under him, but his positioning is solid and he doesn't budge.

"I… yield." she pants out.

Ichigo immediately rises to his feet as the rookies cheer. He offers a hand to Nemari to help her up as she pants on the mat. She slaps the proffered hand away and staggers to her feet, anger clear on her face. She stalks out of the ring past her peers who try to congratulate her for winning second place.

The crowd slowly dissipates, leaving Ichigo sitting on the ropes of the ring, drinking from a water bottle.

"That was a good match, Ichigo. Still keeping your title I see." Kyoraku comments as he walks forward.

"Commander Kyoraku!" he says in surprise. "I didn't know you were watching, sir." He gets a contemplative look as he turns away to look at the wall. "It wasn't that great a match. She underestimated me for looking human and didn't go at full strength with the rabbit punch to properly stun me. If she fought me like she did Kroax, she might've won. It at least would have been a longer match."

Rangiku was rather surprised by his comments. She had been expecting a cocky ass because of what he said in the ring, but it seemed that he was actually a rather humble guy. Or at least knew his limits and would admit to them.

"Good to know you're using your head. It's a real pain when we have to teach rookies to think too." Kyoraku replies, chuckling a bit and Ichigo joins in. "Alright, down to business. This here is Rangiku Matsumoto." He gestures to Rangiku and she gives Ichigo a flirtatious wink, leaning forward to better show off her cleavage. He seems startled by this and she notices him scoot away just a little. _How cute! Mr. Big Bad Rookie is shy of women._ she thinks, marking off chance of sexual harassment to her niece as incredibly low. "She's looking to hire one of our rookies and I suggested you. Ms. Matsumoto would like to talk with you a bit before she makes her decision."

"Um, sure. Ah, if you don't mind me asking, sir, why me? There's plenty of more senior rookies looking to get out of here and into the field. Not that I don't want to go out too, it's just, it doesn't seem fair to them."

Kyoraku smiles. It was no wonder Romix had been teary eyed as he tried to push Ichigo off, the kid was pretty considerate when he was off the battlefield and not dealing with jerks. "Yeah, but most folks don't like Earth too much, even less of them like Japan. You don't have problems with anything based on where it comes from and you speak Japanese, so you were the best fit."

Ichigo nods and looks to Rangiku. "[It's nice to meet you, Matsumoto-san.]" he says in slightly stilted Japanese, inclining his head a bit. "[I'm Kurosaki Ichigo.]"

Rangiku smiles. Knowing the local, "secret" language is certainly a big plus, he just needs to use it more to smooth it out. "No need to hold this interview in Japanese, though A for effort! The standard Gallixian Alliance language is fine." He nods his head in acceptance. "So how'd a rookie like you pick up Japanese?"

"My mom was Japanese and she taught me when I was little. I know bits and pieces of a lot of other languages too because my family travelled a lot for my mom's work."

"Oh? And what was her job?"

He lets out a little sigh, knowing he's just set himself up for explaining his life. "My mom was a researcher on local life forms. Looking at more resilient species and ones that lived in harsh environments to try and find cures and the like for diseases and problems faced by other species. My dad was her bodyguard, unofficially, I guess since he quit the company he was with to travel the stars with her. So me and my sisters grew up on the _Kakaku,_ visiting all the different planets with my parents. When you've visited so many worlds, it's hard to discriminate based on species, which I keep getting told by the higher ranked officers is a plus and seems to get me in endless trouble with the other rookies." He gives a small chuckle.

"And what do you think of humans? You seem to get discriminated against for looking like one." Rangiku asks. This is an important question to her. After all, it wouldn't do to have a body guard for Orihime that wouldn't mind seeing her dead just because she's human.

"Sure, it's a pain to get picked on for looking human and the one time I actually admitted to being part human didn't really help, but I try to judge people for _who_ they are, not _what_ they are. Though the what does occasionally help with how to deal with some people." He absently tags on the end.

Rangiku smiles even wider. He's passed the all of her tests do far and she only had one more. "So why did you join Gotei?"

"I just wanted to live up to my name: Ichi for first place and Go for guardian. My dad always told me stories of the heroic rescues he pulled off, both for my mom and for the clients he used to have when he worked here at Gotei. When I turned fifteen, I decided I wanted to try my hand at it, so I convinced my parents to let me sign on and I've been in training here at base eight for the past year."

"Pack your bags, kid. You've just been hired."

* * *

_So this is a space and aliens sci-fi themed story. I was inspired a bit for the view on Earth and Japan by the manga _Gintama_ and the group in it that is about Japanese nationalism and hates having the aliens run them, not any of the weird yet somehow funny comedy that Gintama is famous for. The bodyguard thing was inspired some ** the reason **by _garden of magnolias._ This of course wouldn't have anywhere as nearly a dark feel to it as that, but I liked the idea that Ichigo was Orihime's bodyguard. So SPAAAAAAAAAAACE!_

**Please leave a comment/review.**


	4. Harry Potter and the Weirdos from Japan

**Author's Note**

So this is a different version of a Harry Potter/Bleach crossover because you can't spend a hundred years living in one town when you don't seem to age.

* * *

**Harry Potter and the Weirdos from Japan**

* * *

"Are you gonna tell us why you dragged our asses to England yet, Geta-boshi, or do I hafta beat it out of you?" an irritated Ichigo Kurosaki asks.

"As much as I hate to agree with Kurosaki, his question does have merit. Why have you brought us to England?" Uryu asks as he pushes up his glasses.

"You didn't ask when I brought you two along." Urahara states, ignoring the question.

"You woke us up in the middle of the night and dragged us off while we were still half asleep!" Ichigo explodes.

"I don't even think I packed my own bag." Uryu mutters.

"Oh, look! It's Hirako-san!" Urahara cries out, pointing to where Shinji is leaning against a wall under a sign pointing to the baggage claim. His distraction works as the two younger men turn to see that the captain of squad 5 is indeed there.

"Yo!" Shinji waves as they approach, pushing off the wall and closing the distance. "I'm surprised you actually got them to come along, Kisuke. What'd ya bribe 'em with?" he asks as his signature grin spreads a little farther across his face.

"He didn't bribe us with jack shit! He dragged our asses out of bed onto a plane in the middle of the night! We were barely even conscious!" Ichigo rants. Shinji just smiles, chuckling a bit at the idea.

"I wouldn't be surprised if Urahara drugged us just to make us come." Uryu states.

"I got your fathers' permission to take you with us on this trip, so there's no need to be worried."

"Our fathers didn't do anything to stop us from going to fight in a war. Twice." Uryu points out.

"So, did ya drug 'em?" Shinji asks. He was rather curious and wondered if he could get some to use on Hiyori the next time he sees her.

"Actually, I did drug those two so they'd come along quietly. It was a tricky little thing to make. I couldn't have it setting off any airport security, so I had to develop it to sedate them using their souls instead of their physical bodies, which is rather tricky when you take into account how resistant powerful souls like theirs are to damage and effects. The drug works by suppressing a person's reiatsu to such a low point that the body figures it needs to rest to regain that energy. I had to be careful that I didn't push it too low to cause a near death state or leave it too high, causing them to just be very hungry and a little sleepy. Then, of course, there was getting the proper dosage for Kurosaki-san. I almost didn't get enough in his first dose, he has so much reiatsu." Urahara merrily explains. The difficulty of this feat of science had left him feeling quite proud of himself. Mayuri certainly couldn't have made such a fine drug in only two days.

"What the hell, Geta-boshi? Seriously. What. The. Hell." Ichigo asks while Uryu drags his hand down his face.

"I would shoot you right now, but then I'd probably get arrested." Uryu states with a huff. _Stupid police and their policies against causing bodily harm to mad scientists who drug people and drag them halfway around the world._

Shinji just chuckles at the boys' annoyance with Urahara as they pull their suitcases off the conveyor belt. Once all the bags are retrieved, they head outside into the settling twilight and hail a cab. They piled in and Urahara gave the man the address.

"So are you two going to finally tell us why we're in London, England?" Uryu impatiently asks, still speaking Japanese so that the cab driver can't understand the conversation.

"Yeah, yeah. Don't get yer panties in a wad, your four-eyed majesty." Shinji replies with a small mock bow, causing Uryu to fume at the mockery of his position. "We brought ya here 'cause Kisuke an' me owe a British guy a small debt from about thirty years ago and he decided ta finally call it in. Said somethin' 'bout being bodyguards or something like that for some kid he's watchin' over."

"So you dragged us halfway around the damn _world _to help you babysit?" Ichigo asks in a disbelieving tone.

"Well, to be perfectly fair, Potter-san is 15, so we figured since you two are closer to his age, he'd be less suspicious of hanging around you two." Urahara chimes in.

"So you intend to make us bodyguards to someone who apparently doesn't want one?" Uryu asks.

"Yep. Surprised ya figured out he didn' want 'em. Guess you're as smart as those glasses make ya look." Shinji says, smiling as he notices the twitch in Uryu's eye at the glasses comment. Ichigo has to struggle a bit to not let any laughs out at Shinji's joke.

"Why does this Potter boy even need bodyguards? And why can't they supply them themselves?" Uryu continues to question.

"Ah, that would be because they're not a very combative society compared to us and are currently facing a 'secret' " Urahara makes actual air quotations as he says secret, "resurgence of a 'dark lord' that wants to kill him. Dumbledore-san, who we owe a debt to, has asked for our assistance since we are combat specialists in protecting Potter-san."

"I suppose we can't really make ya help us, but it seemed like somethin' the two of ya would be willin' ta do an' we needed some younger lookin' faces ta help us." Shinji honestly states. "Guess I coulda used Momo-chan, but then my squad wouldn' have anyone to run it." He adds as an afterthought.

Ichigo sighs. "Fine, I'll help. It just would have been nice to be _informed_ of what the hell we were doing instead of being freaking _kidnapped_."

Uryu pushes his glasses up. "I'll also help, but ask first next time. Otherwise, I'll turn you two into pincushions." he threatens.

The rest of the cab ride is silent as the occupants are left to their own thoughts. They watch the city flash by as the cab comes into a rundown area where the houses were unwelcoming.

" 'Ere we are, Grimmauld Place." the cab driver announces. Shinji, Ichigo, and Uryu get out and start pulling their bags out of the back while Urahara pays the driver. Once they are clear of the cab, he speeds off.

"Alrighty then, off we go!" Urahara says in a voice that both Ichigo and Uryu find much too cheerful for their current location. They pick up their bags and follow him anyways. They walk down the street past rundown homes with broken windows. Loud music can be heard thumping from one of the houses. The small group comes to a stop at number 11. After they've just stood there for a minute, Ichigo loses his patience.

"What the hell are we standing around here for, Geta-boshi?"

"We were instructed to come to this location and that one of Dumbledore-san's people would take us to their base of operations from here. Ooh, maybe that's them now!" Urahara bounces a little bit as he points out two men walking toward their location. One was older with a grizzled mane of gray hair and heavily mismatched eyes, one beady and dark, the other large and electric blue. He walked with a slight limp. The other man was younger with black, shoulder length hair and a hooked nose. His black cloak made him seem almost bat-like and both Ichigo and Uryu shuddered a bit as memories of the last "bat-like" person they had met ran through their heads. The two men come up to the group of four and the older man's blue eye whizzes around in its socket, looking them over. They can now see that the older man is covered in scars and a chunk of his nose is missing.

"I suppose you four are the group from Japan?" the older of the two asks in a gruff voice, speaking English.

"Indeed, we are." Urahara jovially replies. "You must be Dumbledore-san's men. I'm Kisuke Urahara and these are Shinji Hirako, Uryu Ishida, and Ichigo Kurosaki." he introduces, pointing to each of the others in turn.

"Alastor Moody and this is Severus Snape." Moody introduces them. "Snape will be checking you lot to make sure you're not a bunch of Death Eaters. Wouldn't do to lead a small pack of them to our headquarters."

"And how will he do that? We could have forcibly gotten the required information to pass this test if we were fakes." Uryu calmly points out.

"You may be able to lie with words and appearances, but there are very few who know how to lie within the confines of their own mind." Snape dryly points out.

"[Would that sort of thing be safe for him? Me and Shinji have got hollows in our minds.]" Ichigo asks Urahara.

"What'd he say?" Moody barks out.

"Ah, Kurosaki-san was just expressing his concerns over the safety of your friend entering our minds. We are somewhat past human because of the skills we've acquired and wouldn't want him hurting himself by coming across data he can't readily comprehend." Urahara explains.

"[More like eaten.]" Shinji comments, snickering at his own joke. Moody gives him a hard stare and Uryu hits him over the back of the head.

"[You've lived for over a century, so quit acting like a child.]" Uryu scolds Shinji, who only gives him an unrepentant grin.

"If you don't mind," Moody says meaningfully, "we should get started with the tests. Shouldn't spend too long standing around out here." They all nod their heads and line up, Uryu in the front, then Urahara, Shinji, and lastly Ichigo. Snape walks forward to stand before Uryu, takes a deep breath, and dives into the Quincy's mind.

When Snape opens his eyes, he does not find a memory playing around him as he expected. Instead he finds himself in a large library filled with bookshelves that reach for the ceiling laden with scrolls and books.

"I'd always wondered what my inner world would look like." Snape spins around to find the mind's owner calmly walking through the shelves, browsing their contents. "I suppose a library makes sense considering that as Yhwach's heir I have access to all the memories and knowledge of those who have passed and those who would currently allow me access." He tugs a book off one of the shelves and leafs through it before returning it to its spot.

Snape carefully eyes the young man before him, trying to make sense of his words. He made it sound like it was common for a mindscape that wasn't memories or just plain thoughts to exist. More than that, his mind was supposedly connected to others, including the deceased.

"What are you?" Snape asks, his tone defensive with a slight hint of fear in it.

Uryu looks up from the tome he was skimming. "I'm Ishida Uryu, leader of the Quincy people, heir of Yhwach, and his downfall." he says in a proud tone, looking almost regal. "I'm also a distant cousin of Kurosaki." He offhandedly adds on, going back to skimming the contents of the tome in his hand.

Snape still can't make much sense of what Uryu has told him, so he cautiously reaches out and removes one of the scrolls from the shelf and opens it. He immediately snaps it back shut as the image of some _monster_ about to wrap its large jaws around his body flashes over him. Panting he places the scroll back into its stack.

Snape withdraws his consciousness from Uryu's mind.

They blink at each other before Snape steps back. "He's not a Death Eater." He calmly declares, hiding his inner turmoil over the strangeness of the boy's mind. _I'm not sure what exactly he is. _Snape then moves down the line to Urahara and dives into the inventor's mind.

Once more, Snape is disoriented by the lack of memory playing before him. This time he finds himself in what appears to be a laboratory, if the mass of beakers, burners, and jars on the tables are anything to go by. He also spots several boxes scattered about the room that contain an ungodly number of folding fans and duplicates of the striped bucket hat the man had been wearing.

"Well. Well. What do we have here?" a smooth feminine voice purrs from behind Snape. He whirls around to see a regal looking woman dressed in layers of a red kimono held in place by a golden sash and holding one of the fans before her lower face walking towards him, wooden geta clacking on the tile floors of the lab. Her ruby red hair is pinned up with clinking golden ornaments and her purple eyes gleam with intelligence far beyond that of most men. "I must admit, this is the first time someone else has reached this lab and little Kisuke's been trying for _decades_ to figure out how to semi-physically infiltrate another's mind. How _did_ you do it, little wizard?"

Snape becomes nervous as the woman stalking towards him takes on a predatory air, looking upon him as if he is some interesting specimen laid out before her. He moves back and starts when his back hits one of the tables, knocking a few beakers to the floor.

"Why don't we find out if the injuries you sustain here are transferred to your body outside? I know it works for shinigami when they spar with zanpakuto, but will it work on invaders, I wonder?" she croons, a frightening smile on her lips.

Snape is panicking now, unsure how to stop the woman's advances when he is unarmed. His fear increases when she draws a blade out of nowhere, leveling it at him. He scrabbles at the contents on the table behind him, trying to grab something to throw at the mad woman before him in hopes of deterring her. She brings the blade up and swings so fast Snape catches little more than a red blur. He clenches his eyes shut, knowing that he cannot defend against her and waits for the pain of the blow.

It never comes.

He slowly opens his eyes and finds the blade tip resting lightly against his shoulder, a pale hand gripping the wrist of his attacker.

"Maa~ That was a close one!" Urahara cheerily says. "A moment later and your shoulder would have been cut open.

"Must you run my experiment, Kisuke? I never ruin _your_ experiments." the woman pouts, withdrawing her arm and the blade.

"Now, now, Benihime-chan. We're here to convince this man we're not his enemies. Cutting people open with swords doesn't help, now does it?" he chides his zanpakuto spirit.

"You never let me have any fun." she sniffs, turning away from her partner and folding her arms across her chest. "You barely use me anymore. The most you've done has been within the past four years! In over a century! You've only gone bankai three times since you've learned it!" she tirades, stomping her feet and acting like a brat in Snape's opinion. "Don't you care about me, Kisuke?" she sobs, slumping to her knees and letting her legs splay beneath her.

"Of course, Benihime-chan!" Urahara quickly reassures her, bending down to place his hands on her shoulders. "Of course I care. But we were in hiding for a long time, releasing you could have got us caught and killed. And you know bankai is a last resort move, so doesn't that mean we're strong if we so rarely need to use it?" his placations slowly lessen the sobs from Benihime until it's just small sniffles. "Now why don't you go play with the soda and Mentos. That's fun, right?" she nods as she picks herself up. Benihime straightens her robes, dusting them off, and regaining her regal air before stalking off through the lab, the clacking of her geta slowly fading.

"She's always such a handful." Urahara wistfully sighs, a smile on his face as he watches her retreating form. "Sorry for the mess, Snape-san. It's usually just me and Benihime-chan in here." he says as he pulls a pair of stools out from under a table, taking a seat in one and gesturing Snape to the other. He carefully takes the seat, perching on the edge of it, ready to run if the mind's owner turns out just as crazy as the second personality he just met. "I'd offer you something to drink, but I'm afraid nothing in here is likely edible. Or if it is, it probably isn't good for you." he says with a shrug.

"I think I'll be leaving now." Snape says, feeling rather eager to get out of the laboratory and away from its two crazy occupants. Urahara just smiles and waves good-bye.

Snape blinks and shakes his head a bit upon returning to the real world. Urahara gives him an unrepentant grin. "He's not a Death Eater either." _Though he seems quite mad. _He steps back and moves down the line, feeling some trepidation about venturing into the minds of the two remaining men. This feeling is not helped by the smug looking grin plastered across Shinji's face.

Taking a steadying breath and praying that there's nothing like Benihime in the blonde's mind, he dives in.

This time, Snape is barely fazed by the lack of memory playing before him. Shinji's mind appears to be an old stone city filled with maze-like streets. Over the roof tops, he can see what looks like some sort of temple in what appears to be the center of the city. Looking around and finding no one in sight, Snape decides to head for the temple as there's no other land markers available.

It feels like a long process, winding through the streets, cutting through switch backs, and generally trying to navigate the place. Snape finally reaches the temple to find Shinji waiting on the steps. With his closer view, Snape now notices some oddities about the temple. It has no windows or openings, the walls are scored with deep scratches, making Snape wonder at what could leave such marks, and the most disturbing thing to Snape is the doorway. In the center of the double doors is what appears to be a mask made of bone that brings to mind an Egyptian pharaoh. Snape can't shake the feeling that the blank eye holes in the mask are watching him, waiting for him to come close enough to attack.

Shinji notices how Snape stares at the mask in the doorway. " 'S not a nice fellow. That's why I got 'im sealed up nice 'n tight here." Shinji says as he descends the stairs to stand beside Snape. "Was a helluva fight ta make him submit so I could seal 'im. Ya can still see the some o' the damage we did in that tussle." He points out the gauges in the rock of the temple.

"What is it?" Snape asks, his voice quiet as if he fears speaking to loud will bring the monster upon them. Snape has always considered himself a brave man, one has to be brave to face down the Dark Lord and lie to his face, but whatever it is that Shinji has sealed in this temple is much more terrifying on a more basic level than Tom Riddle could ever be. Whatever is in there can cause a fear that sits in his bones, screaming to put as much distance as possible between them.

"That's my inner hollow." Shinji quietly replies. "They're pretty nasty things. Try and take you over from the inside, get you to kill anything around you. Nothing but instincts and violence." Snape shivers at the description, barely noting the lack of accent as Shinji speaks.

"We're fighters. That's what your boss asked for. We are violent people when provoked. This is just most of the violence I've got compressed into one place." Shinji casually states, placing his hand on Snape's shoulder. "But don't worry, I've got this bastard under control." He grins as he gives Snape's shoulder a squeeze before letting go and wandering off into the maze of streets, whistling a light tune.

Snape shudders a bit as he comes back to his senses, adjusting to the warm late summer air as opposed to the chill of malice around the temple in Shinji's mindscape. "Not a Death Eater." _But still a monster, or at least a monster's master._

Snape turns to look at the last of the foreign group. He wears a scowl under his vibrantly orange hair and gives off a rather punkish air with the way he holds himself. _Last one._ Snape mentally braces himself and dives into Ichigo's mind.

Snape had been expecting another one of those "inner worlds" as Ishida had called it, but this one was completely disorienting. He could see a city of skyscrapers raised up around him, all colored blue and filled with glass windows. There wasn't anything too bad about that, Shinji's had been a city too, if of a very different fashion. No what was disorienting about this world was that everything was _sideways._ He stood on the _side_ of one of the great skyscrapers, with the ground far to his left and the open sky to his right. A mild warm breeze swirled around him. Snape turned to look behind him and stopped.

At his throat rested the tip of a large, obsidian blade shaped rather similarly to a kitchen knife with a hole along the back side of it. The blade was really enough reason to stop, but what made a cold sweat break out over him was the blade's wielder.

Holding the blade was a white duplicate of Kurosaki. His hair was white spikes. His skin was a solid white, no color visible from the veins underneath. Even his clothes were white, though they did have some black trimming. The abuse of the color white Snape could handle, it was the doppelganger's eyes that put fear in him. Its eyes were gold in a sea of black. Cunning and lit with an animalistic ruthlessness that made Snape want to hide away in a hole and hope he wasn't found.

A cruel smile spread across the _thing's_ face. "Well what'd ya know? Aibou was right. Ya can get inta inner worlds." it muses, bringing the blade a little closer to his throat causing Snape to take a step back. The creature's voice is distorted, as though it's speaking underwater, and Snape notices that its tongue is blue. It laughs in deranged amusement at Snape's fear and reaction.

"That is enough." a deep baritone commands. "There is no need to torture the man as he does his job." Snape peers over the shoulder of the creature before him to see a tall, gaunt faced middle-aged man with a mess of deep brown, almost black, hair with a stubble and a tan visor in a ragged black coat.

"I don't have ta listen to ya, ossan!" it shouts back, annoyance obvious in tis tone.

"And before you two start fighting, let's call this a draw." Ichigo calmly interjects, advancing towards the little group. "Zangetsu put your sword away. If he actually tries to cause trouble, then you can stab him."

"Tch. You ain't no fun, Aibou." Zangetsu says as he swings the large blade around to rest on his right shoulder. Snape pales a bit at the casual discussion of his impalement.

"Sorry about him. Zangetsu is more of a stab first, ask questions later kind of guy. So, um, how does this mental test thingy work?" Ichigo asks.

"We're already done." Snape replies, withdrawing from Ichigo's mind before he can get a reply. He doesn't want to spend any longer in the company of Zangetsu than he must.

Snape steps back from Ichigo and turns around, throwing out "Not a Death Eater." as he walks back to stand beside Moody.

"Alright. Seems the four of you are in the clear. Come 'ere and read this." He motions for them to come forward while pulling a slip of parchment out of his breast pocket. The four gather around him and read the message written in narrow handwriting: _The headquarters if the Order of the Phoenix may be found at number twelve, Grimmauld Place, London._

"Ano, what's the Or– "

"Shhhh!" Moody hisses, cutting Uryu off. "Not out here boy! Wait 'til we get inside."

"But there's no freaking number Twelve!" Ichigo hisses back.

"Focus on what you've read, boy." Snape says in a derisive tone.

Ichigo gets ready to snap a comeback when he notices the materializing form of number twelve.

"Come on, hurry!" Moody snaps. "We haven't got all night." He impatiently gestures to the house and the four grab their bags and quickly file in after him while Snape brings up the rear.

They found themselves in a decrepit entry way lit by old gas lamps. There was a tall old man with half-moon spectacles and a long silvery-white beard in midnight robes standing before them.

"Thank you for coming and welcome to the Order of the Phoenix."

* * *

_So this one I've played with several variants of with which characters should get dragged along for the trip, some excluding Shinji and some including Orihime because boys and jealousy. The premise is that Urahara, and in this variant, Shinji, owe Dumbledore a debt for a little help he gave them while they were living in England during their hundred year exile because, seriously, you can't spend one hundred years in the same town when you don't really age physically. I kind of figured they would move around the world because they've got an incredibly long time to live as long as they can dodge the Soul Society, which would work better if they don't stay in one country. So why couldn't they have done a stint in England? _

_It also takes place in book 5 of Harry Potter, which should be obvious, and after the Thousand-year Blood War in Bleach. These actually line up pretty nicely because Bleach stuff is in mid-June and will only be a nine day war and Harry Potter starts in the beginning of August._

_As for Shinji, Urahara, Uryu, and Ichigo being able to speak English fluently, I did a bit of possible rule bending. Shinji and Urahara know because they're captains and Soul Society for all of its Japanese-ness supposedly guards the whole world from hollows, so they probably were in charge of an English speaking district if Squads 13 and 10 can have districts next door to each other. Also, there's their supposed stay in England for this story and there's nothing for learning a language than living in a place that speaks it. Uryu as the heir to Yhwach inherits his powers when they kill him(assumed ending) and gets the giant Quincy databank that Yhwach has stored up from all his soul splitting, so I figure at least one guy in there had to have spoken fluent English, which Uryu is now drawing upon. Ichigo is a Shakespeare fan, so he's got to have a bit of a handle on English in my opinion, and besides that, since Yhwach could mind speak to Ichigo, I figure Uryu could send the knowedge of how to speak English across that link to Ichigo. So everyone can speak English rather fluently._

_And I feel the need to mention this: in this story, magic and reiatsu are separate. I intend for magic to work more along the lines of the recent-ish, not really, Sorcerer's Apprentice movie by Disney's concept that magic is using more of the human brain. The wizards will have enough reiatsu to see shinigami and stuff, but they don't really know about it because hollows tend to stick to Japan and I think the Japanese wizards are canonically secluded. The Bleach characters will be able to use magic because more of their brains are used for reiatsu sense processing and the like, giving them enough capacity to use magic as long as they have a wand to boost that mental capability, unlike wizards how have enough access to spasmodically use magic without a wand._

_So I think that covers all the important concepts that would go into this fic if I wrote it._

* * *

**_Please review/comment, I really need some feedback as I kind of want to work on a second story._**


	5. Summoning the Forces of Life and Death

**Author's Note**

Okay, Harry Potter/Bleach crossover version number 3!

* * *

**Summoning the Forces of Life and Death**

* * *

She'd only gotten a brief glimpse of the new prisoners being added to their abysmal cellar prison through the light of the opened door. The first pair had been a teenage boy and smaller, humanoid creature that was badly hurt. Her heart ached to see yet more people in pain join them. The second pair were two teenage boys, one with coppery hair and the other with black hair and a swollen face.

As the bang of the cellar door started to fade, a terrible, drawn-out scream sounded from above them. One of the boy's roars of "Hermione!" echoed around the cellar as he struggled against the ropes tying him and the other boy together. He ignored the other boy's pleas for him to shut up and think.

"Harry?" one of her fellow prisoners whispered. "Ron? Is that you?"

Luna's whispered words brought silence from the boys.

"Harry? Ron?" she questions again.

"_Luna?_" one of them says in a disbelieving tone.

"Yes, it's me! Oh no, I didn't want you to be caught!" Luna frets.

"Luna, can you help us get these ropes off?" the not-yelling boy asks.

"Oh yes, I expect so… There's as old nail we use if we need to break anything… Just a moment…"

"I'll get it, Luna-chan!" a female voice calls out with strained, forced cheer. Harry can hear a shuffling as this other girl moves around.

Hermione screams again, Bellatrix's own unintelligible yells mixed in with it, stirring Ron into another yelling frenzy.

"Excuse me, Ollivander-san? Have you got the nail?" the girl's voice quietly asks. "Um, I think it was by the water jug… Ano, could you please move a bit… Arigatou." And the shuffling came back to them.

"Here you go, Luna-chan."

"Thank you, Orihime. Harry, Ron, you'll need to stay still." Luna instructs the boys as she sets to work trying to cut the rope with the nail.

The cellar's occupants can here Bellatrix demanding to know how the sword had come into Hermione and the boy's possession. Hermione's sobbing answer ends in a scream causing Ron to struggle once more and the nail slip onto Harry's wrist.

"Ron, please stay still!" Luna hisses. "I can't see what I'm doing – "

"My pocket!" Ron desperately whispers. "In my pocket, there's a Deluminator, and it's full of light!" he quickly explains, scooting a bit to try and give them better access to his aforementioned pocket.

"I'll get it!" Orihime quickly offers, slim hands quickly diving into his pockets and emerging with the Deluminator. Feeling its lighter-like shape, she clicks it and the lights stolen from the tent lamps pour out, forming several small, sun-like spheres of light. With the light, the boys are able to see the mysterious second girl. She has auburn hair cascading down her back to her waist, soft grey eyes, and a curving figure that would make most girls very jealous. She was knelt down beside Luna whose white face was all eyes and Harry could see the motionless figure of Ollivander curled up in the corner. All three of them were wearing dirty, torn clothes. Bending to look around Harry could see Dean and Griphook, who was only kept standing by the bindings holding him to Dean and was barely conscious.

"Oh, that's much easier, thanks, Ron, you too, Orihime." Luna says as she resumes cutting the rope. "Hello, Dean!"

Bellatrix's voice is clear now as she demands to know if Hermione has been in her Gringotts vault and what else they've taken from the vault. Hermione screams, stirring Ron once more. Bellatrix continues, commanding Hermione to tell her what Bellatrix believes to be the truth.

"There!" Luna announces as Harry feels the ropes fall away.

Harry rubs his wrists as he watches Ron scramble around, looking to the low cellar sealing to find a trapdoor. Dean mutters his thanks to Luna and stands, shivering, while Griphook sinks to the floor upon release, looking disoriented and barely awake, many welts across his face, disfiguring his already inhuman features.

Ron is spinning about now, looking so funny that Orihime can't help but giggle a bit at the silliness of it, earning some stares from Harry and Dean.

"There's no way out, Ron." Luna says, watching what she recognizes to be fruitless attempts at Diapparating without a wand. "The cellar is completely escape-proof. I tried, at first. Mr. Ollivander has been here for a long time, he's tried everything, and Orihime's come up with some… unique ideas that didn't work either."

Hermione was screaming once more, causing Orihime to flinch, looking pained herself, and Harry to join Ron in the search for something to get them out, even though he knew it was useless.

"What else did you take, what else?! ANSWER ME! _CRUCIO_!"

As Hermione's screams intensified, Orihime's eyes began to water at the sounds of pain that she couldn't stop. The screams tore at her heart and she wished she could help, but they had confiscated her hair pins, there was nothing she could do. Ron was half sobbing as he pounded the walls in frustration and desperation while Harry was pulling things from a pouch around his neck: a gold ball that he shook before replacing it in the bag, waving a broken stick, she supposed it must be a wand, and then a glass shard fell out.

"Help us!" Harry yelled in desperation at it. "We're in the cellar of Malfoy Manor, help us!" He picked up the shard, tilting it around and staring at it.

Hermione's screams worsened once more and Ron had renewed his bellowing of her name. Bellatrix was screaming for answers as to how they had gotten into her vault and Hermione was telling her the sword was a fake, which Bellatrix didn't seem to believe.

"We can find out easily!" Lucius interjects. "Draco, fetch the goblin, he can tell us whether the sword is real or not!"

Orihime was a little pleased to find out what the little man-creature was, she had been wondering ever since she had seen him tied to Dean. She watched as Harry moved over to the goblin, begging Griphook, _that must be his name,_ not to reveal the authenticity of the sword. She could hear footsteps coming down the stairs to the door.

"Stand back!" came the shaking, nervous voice of Draco. "Line up back against the wall. Don't try anything or I'll kill you!"

Orihime didn't think he would really kill anyone unless they caught him in a knee-jerk reaction. She'd seen enough killers to know when she faced someone who would actually do it without hesitation. Still, she complied with the others, considering the plan that had slowly been forming since she had watched Ron run around as he clicked the Deluminator, returning them to darkness. Malfoy quickly came in, grabbed Griphook, and dragged him out with a determined, if not somewhat frightened, look. A loud crack sounded as the door banged shut, causing Orihime to jump at the sound.

"DOB– !" Ron started after he had returned the lights, only to be cut short by a hit to the arm from Harry. Ron immediately looked scared that the small start of a shout had alerted their captors, but there were no changes in the footsteps overhead.

Orihime studied the new little humanoid being before her, taking in large tennis-ball-shaped eyes and large bat ears. He was wearing what she found to be a cute little outfit, making a small smile to appear on her face that quickly morphed into a frown as she took in his trembling, terrified state.

"Harry Potter," it squeaked out, a tremor in its voice. "Dobby has come to rescue you."

"But how did you– ?" Harry began to ask, only for a blood curdling scream to sound above them. Orihime felt incredibly bad for this Hermione girl, but those screams had given her hope for a way to help them get out, she just hoped it would work.

"You can Disapparate out of this cellar?" Harry asked Dobby, receiving a nod. "And you can take humans with you?" Another nod. "Right. Dobby, I want you to grab Luna, Dean, Mr. Ollivander and.."

"Orihime." Luna supplies.

"Orihime, and take them… take them to…"

"Bill and Fleur's," Ron suggests. "Shell Cottage on the outskirts of Tinworth!"

Dobby nods once more.

"And then come back," Harry finishes. "Can you do that, Dobby?"

"Of course, Harry Potter." Dobby quietly replies, moving over to grab Ollivander's hand, seeing as the man is barely conscious and not moving anytime soon, offering the other to Luna, Dean, and Orihime, none of whom moved to take it.

"Harry, we want to help you!" Luna whispers.

"We can't leave you here." Dean says.

"Go, all of you! We'll see you as Bill and Fleur's."

"Go!" he begged Luna and Dean. "Go! We'll follow, just go!"

"Ano, before you leave, can I make a request?" Orihime shyly asks, waiting and receiving a nod from the house elf before continuing. "If you could, would you find my hair pins?" Seeing the disbelieving looks from the others she quickly continues, "They house my powers and I really need them back." She feels relief as understanding comes over their faces and Dobby nods, accepting her request. She figured the request would be much like asking him to retrieve one of their wands. "And I can't leave until we get Kurosaki-kun." Orihime quietly states, stepping away from Dobby. "He's still here somewhere and I won't leave without him." They couldn't argue with the determination in her eyes.

The other two grabbed Dobby's hand and they, along with Ollivander, disappeared with a crack, leaving Ron, Harry, and Orihime behind.

"What was that?" Lucius shouts, surprise with a bit of worry lace his voice. "Did you hear that? What was that noise in the cellar?"

The three stare at one another, Orihime shivering slightly.

"Draco… no, call Wormtail! Make him go and check!"

Orihime begins to panic a bit. Her plan for getting Ichigo requires them to make it out of the cellar first, otherwise Hermione might get hurt and Orihime doesn't want that. While she's fretting the boys come up with a plan and prepare to ambush Pettigrew.

The boys tackle Wormtail before he can fully process that there is only one prisoner in sight with three mini-suns floating above her, making her look like goddess his Dark Lord proclaimed her to be, if a rather disheveled one from her time in captivity. The boys wrestle with him and he almost chokes Harry before Harry says something to make him let go.

When the metallic hand begins to strangle its owner, she rushes forward to try and help Ron and Harry pry it off, wishing Ichigo was there or that she was as strong as him. The three fail to release Peter Pettigrew from the metallic hand and he twitches one last time before dying as Hermione screams once more.

The boys look to each other before heading up the stairs. Orihime follows after she closes Pettigrew's eyes, feeling sorry that she couldn't do anything to help him without her powers. She spreads her senses as she follows the boys up the stairs, searching for Ichigo, but all she can tell is that he's alive and close by. She really hates whatever being dragged through that portal has done to her senses, and to Ichigo's presence too because even very dull spiritual senses should be able to pick up on him. Since she failed to get his exact location, she decides to continue following the boys and hope the plan she has works. They come to a stop outside of the open drawing room door, watching Griphhook tell Bellatrix the sword is a fake.

Satisfied with the answer, she triumphantly proclaims, "And now, we call the Dark Lord!" touching her finger to a tattoo on her left forearm. Harry cringes, hand going to his scar, and Orihime looks at him in concern.

"And I think," Bellatrix says in a sweetly poisonous voice, "we can dispose of the Mudblood. Greyback, take her if you want her."

"NOOOOOOOOOOO!" Ron roars in defiance, bursting from their hiding place.

He uses Wormtail's wand to disarm Bellatrix, sending the wand flying to Harry, who had followed after him. Harry quickly hits Lucius with a jet of red light, causing him to collapse onto the hearth. Jets of light are sent flying from Draco, Narcissa, and Greyback towards Harry, who drops to the floor and rolls behind a sofa to dodge them.

"STOP OR SHE DIES!" Bellatrix shouts.

An ear splitting scream breaks the small silence and Harry peaks over the couch fearing for Hermione, but seeing her mouth shut and the dagger at her throat makes it obvious it's not her scream. Then he remembers, _Orihime!_ But before he can look for the busty girl, a furious, inhuman roar shakes the house. The roar makes Harry's blood run cold as it stirs a primal fear in his bones and he can see he's not the only one affected. Ron has frozen where he stands, hand white knuckled around Pettigrew's wand. Bellatrix's hand twitches on the knife, nicking Hermione's throat, as she and the others go still, Greyback curling in on himself in fear.

"What is that?" he quietly growls, voice filled with fear.

Bellatrix ignores him, turning to the drawing room doors where Orihime stands. "What did you do, girl?" she quietly hisses, fear also evident in her tone.

Orihime gives her a grim smile. "I've called Kurosaki-kun and now he'll come running. He promised, and Kurosaki-kun doesn't break his promises."

Bellatrix gives off a hysterical laugh. "We've locked your monster up! He _can't _come for you!" Orihime's smile drops, but her determination holds.

"Now drop your wands." Bellatrix whispers, a hint of fear still in her voice as quieter roars can still be heard. "Drop them, or we'll see exactly how filthy her blood is!"

Ron is still locked in place, though it is anger and helplessness that now keep him rooted to the spot, and Harry slowly stands from behind the couch.

"I said, drop them!" Bellatrix screeches, putting the knife a little deeper into Hermione's throat, causing a trickle of blood to run out from under the knife.

"All right!" Harry shouts, dropping Bellatrix's wand while Ron does the same with Wormtail's. the boys and Orihime raise their hands up in surrender.

"Good!" Bellatrix leers. "Draco, pick them up!" she commands. "The Dark Lord approaches, Harry Potter! Your death approaches!" she taunts.

Orihime quickly mouths a wordless prayer, hoping that Dobby will appear with her hairpins or Ichigo will arrive to help.

"Now," Bellatrix croons as Draco returns with the wands, "Cissy, I think we ought to tie these little heroes and the little goddess up again, while Greyback takes care of Miss Mudblood. I am sure the Dark Lord will not begrudge you the girl, Greyback, after what you have done tonight."

As Bellatrix finishes, a rumbling sound comes from above them, causing a crystal chandelier to wildly shake; then with a boom, the ceiling holding the chandelier collapses in a rain of rubble. Bellatrix drops Hermione, throwing herself aside with a scream to dodge the falling chandelier and debris. It all hits the floor, exploding outwards, covering Hermione and Griphook, who still holds the sword of Gryffindor, in dust and crystal shards. Shards of ceiling and crystal fly everywhere and Draco doubles over, hands covering his bloodied face.

Ron rushes forward to retrieve Hermione, not noticing a crouching figure that can be seen atop the pile of rubble through the dust. Harry doesn't pay attention to it, too busy taking advantage of the distraction to wrestle the wands from Draco and using them to stun Greyback.

Narcissa drags Draco out of harm's way and Bellatrix springs to her feet, brandishing the silver knife as she whirls around. Narcissa points her wand at the figure on top of the pile of rubble.

It straightens as the dust clears and Harry notices a smaller figure at its side that he soon recognizes to be Dobby. However when his attention returns back to Dobby's companion, he feels his blood run cold once more, knowing that the creature before him had to be the source of the roars from before. The only type of creature that Harry can think to label the thing before him with is _demon._ Its body is shaped like that of a human, except for the gaping hole in the middle of its chest. Its skin is white as bone, with dark red, almost black, stripes coming out from the hole in its chest to wrap around its shoulders to the back and up its throat. There were bright red fur tassels around its wrists and ankles and a collar of the same fur around its neck. Its fingers were tipped with dark claws and Harry had a sneaking suspicion that if he could see its feet, they would be clawed as well. Long, bright orange hair flowed down to its waist in a grimy mane, as there was blood splashed all over its figure, though no wounds could be seen. It wore ragged black pants tied with a white cloth belt, leaving its lean but well defined chest on display, and it was wreathed in broken chains that Harry assumed had kept it from arriving sooner. However, the most terrifying part of the creature, in Harry's opinion, was its face. It looked much like a skull with sharp teeth lining its mouth. Two great horns reminiscent of a bull's projected out before it from the sides of its head. The striping continued up through the jawline and eye holes to crest over its head and he assumed down the back of its head. Its golden eyes were just visible in the eye holes. A low growl came from it as it stared down Narcissa, Draco, and Bellatrix.

"Dobby!" Narcissa screamed, flinching when the creatures head turned, focusing on her, even as Bellatrix froze. "You! _You_ set that _monster_ free?!"

The tiny elf stepped out a bit more from behind the monster's leg and pointed at his former mistress.

"You must not hurt Harry Potter!" he demanded, the monster growling his agreement it seemed.

"Kill them, Cissy!" Bellatrix shrieks and the monster snarls, its jaws parting slightly, while a loud _crack_ sounds and Narcissa's wand flies from her hand to land on the other side of the room.

"You dirty little monkey!" Bellatrix venomously screeches. "_How dare you _take a witch's wand, _how dare you _defy your masters?!"

"Dobby has no master!" he shouts in defiance. "Dobby is a free elf, and Dobby has come to save Harry Potter and his friends!" The monster punctuates his declaration with a loud roar and it seems to signal the final struggle to escape.

"Ron catch– and GO!" Harry yells, tossing one of the three wands to him, knowing from the pain in his scar that they only have seconds before Voldemort arrives. The monster blurs past him, scooping up Orihime, as he runs forward and bends down to pull Griphook out of the rubble. He hoists the barely conscious goblin, who is still clutching the sword, over his shoulder. He seizes Dobby's hand, feeling a clawed hand and a smaller, gentler one grip onto his other shoulder, and spins on the spot to Disapparate.

The world blurs around him and he spins, catching a last glimpse of the drawing room: of the frozen and ever so pale figures of Narcissa and Draco Malfoy, of the spot of coppery red that is Ron's hair, and the flash of silver as Bellatrix throws her knife at the place they are vanishing from.

_Bill and Fleur's… Shell Cottage… Bill and Fleur's…_

Harry concentrates on the name of his destination, hoping it will be enough to get them there. Feeling Dobby's hand jerk in his, he figures the elf is trying to steer them in the right direction, and Harry squeezes his hand to show he's giving permission for the elf to take over.

They hit solid earth and the air around them smells of salt. Harry falls to his knees, hearing the two figures who had latched on fall too. He lets go of Dobby's hand and tries to gently lower Griphook to the ground.

"Are you alright?" Harry asks, but all he receives is a whimper.

"Dobby, is this Shell Cottage?" he whispers, tightening his grip on the two snatched wands, ready to fight if need be. "Have we come to the right place? Dobby?"

He looks to the elf, only to see him staring wide eyed at the figure slumped before him, orange hair splayed around it.

"Dobby, what's wrong? Dobby?" Harry asks, not sure if Dobby's afraid of the monster now lying before him or if t's something else.

The elf places a small hand on its shoulder, carefully rolling it forward so that it lies on the ground, face down, revealing the glinting silver knife sticking out of its back next to the hole in its chest. Harry hears a small gasp and turns to see Orihime kneeling next to him, hands over her mouth and tears in her eyes.

"It saved Dobby, Harry Potter, sir. It took Miss Bellatrix's knife for Dobby, sir." He says in a quiet, amazed tone.

"Oh, Kurosaki-kun!" Orihime quietly sobs, causing Harry to turn in her direction upon learning the monster is the person she wanted to stay and save. She turns to Dobby with a desperate look on her face, "Did you get my hairpins, Dobby-san? I-I can he-heal him if I h-have my hairpins!"

The elf's eyes widen before he sadly shakes his head, causing her sobs to get louder.

"No… HELP!" Harry shouts toward the cottage, toward the people moving there. "HELP!" They _need_ help. He can't just let this… Kurosaki-kun die, not after he had done something so good and noble, not after he had helped them escape.

"[_Don't_… _cry_…]"

All heads turn to look at the monster. Harry had no idea he could speak, even if he couldn't understand it.

"[But you're hurt and I can't heal you without my Shun Shun Rikka!]" Orihime sobs to him.

"[_Rikka_… _fur_… _throat_…]" he slurs out, the light of his eyes slowly blinking as he breathes shallowly.

"[Rikka, fur, throat! What's that suppo– Oh!]" Orihime quickly reaches forward, hands combing through the brilliant red fur at his throat, ignoring the gasps coming from Bill and Fleur, Dean and Luna, as they gathered around the small party. She lets out a triumphant squeal and, smiling, sits back, clasping two hairpins with light-blue, six-petaled flowers on them in one hand. She reaches out and yanks the dagger out of his back, causing him to give a faint growl of pain as blood pours from the wound. Alarmed shouts come from the others, but she ignores them.

"Soten Kishun" she chants, causing two sparks of warm golden light to fly from the pins, forming a dome over him. The others watch, amazed, as the wound stops bleeding and begins to close under the gentle light of the golden dome.

"Hermione?" Harry suddenly asks, snapping their attention form the healing dome. "Where is she?"

Bill blinks for a moment before answering, "Ron's taken her inside. She'll be alright."

Harry turns his attention back to the dome as it suddenly fades from existence, causing worry to leap in his chest, but one look assuages that fear as he sees that the wound is now completely gone. Ichigo groans and slowly pushes himself up to a sitting position, the others backing off to give him room.

Orihime is beaming at him. "[How do you feel?]"

"[Much better… Thanks.]"

"Miss?" Orihime feels a tug on her fleeve and looks down to find Dobby there. "Does he understand English?" He asks Orihime.

"Ano, I think so, but I can translate if you need me to!" she says, pumping her fist.

Dobby nods. "Thank you for saving Dobby!" he squeaks, bowing to Ichigo.

"_You're… welcome… I was… just trying…. to return… the favor"_ Dobby sports a look of confusion, so he continues, "_For setting… me free so… I could… help."_ He finishes, bowing his head.

"Well, now that that's taken care of, why don't we get you all inside?" Bill suggests.

Dean picks up Griphook while Fleur steadies Orihime as she wobbles. Ichigo tries to rush forward and help, but stumbles himself. Bill catches his shoulders and pulls an arm across his neck to support him. They all head to the cottage to rest and recuperate from their ordeal in the Malfoy Manor.

* * *

_So this one was inspired by **Hair of a Demon, Heart of a Demon** by _Aneki Okumura._ It's a cool Blue Exorcist/HP crossover where they meet Rin in the cellar. _

_For this one, Voldemort tried summoning a physical form for the power of life. Needless to say, it was a bogus spell, and instead sucked Orihime and her amazing rejection of fate powers through to the HP universe instead and Ichigo, being the good friend/boyfriend(I haven't decided their status for this fic yet), tried to grab on to keep her from being teleported away and got dragged through too. So old Voldy got a power of life and a very grumpy power of death. They were able to capture them both because forcible cross dimensional travel is very disorienting, especially when the new dimension messes with your powers to make them conform. So they lost the area effect of large reiatsu and their sensing capabilities have been messed with. I think I might also take away air walking, I'm not sure._

**_Please review /comment._**


	6. Fairy and Reaper

**Author's Note**

So somehow the first thing I wrote for this is the story summary and I didn't feel like removing it, so that's first, then the actual story shot. Enjoy!

* * *

**Fairy and Reaper**

* * *

As the Sacred Fairy of the Church of Light, Orihime Inoue was supposed to be deathly afraid of Dark Beings, including the Undead. And she was. She lived up to the stereotype set long ago by the first Sacred Fairy, that is, until she met a Reaper.

* * *

I began my training to be the next Sacred Fairy when I was only seven years old. My brother always told me it was a privilege to be selected for such an honorable position in the Church of Light, so I've always been humbled by this position, even though I can't be myself in public anymore.

I suppose I should explain that. You see, the Church of Light is very old and has always opposed the forces of Darkness. It's an old story, but many years ago when mankind was born, there was a war in the heavens. The Goddess of Light wished to take the humans under her kind and gentle wing, making them loving keepers of the peace, while the God of Darkness wanted to harbor them in his shadow, making them bloodthirsty warriors. The God and Goddess fought for many years over the humans, causing much bloodshed and destroying parts of the world. The Ruler of the Heavens was dismayed by the destruction the two caused, so he decreed that their fight must now be left to the mortal beings, that they could no longer directly use their godly powers to enforce their visions for the world. The God of Darkness quickly took advantage of this, teaching the secrets of Dark Magic to his followers, allowing them to summon beasts aligned with the Dark and to reanimate the dead, creating the Undead. The followers of the Goddess of Light were outmatched by the sheer number of fighters the Dark was able to create and summon. However, the worst was when the first Dark Reaper was born. The most powerful of the Undead had always been the Reapers, Undead with an extreme hatred that could drive them even from beyond the grave to avenge themselves. Not to mention that it took a very powerful and skilled necromancer to call one into existence. The more a Reaper struggles and hates, the faster, and stronger, the Reaper would grow. The Knights of Light would always act swiftly to destroy a Reaper because of its great power, but somehow one of them kept surviving until its hatred became so overwhelming and made it so powerful that it was no longer a Reaper. Instead it became a Dark Reaper, the most powerful of the Undead, capable of summoning its own army, achieving truly inhuman levels of physical capabilities, and becoming near impossible to defeat. In the Church of Light's time of need, the benevolent goddess appointed six vassals with her power: the Sacred Maiden, the Sacred Archer, the Sacred Knight, the Sacred Giant, the Sacred Dragon, and the Sacred Fairy. Together, the Six Sacred Vassals of Light were able to bring down the Death Reaper. Afterwards, the six were able to banish most of the Darkness and bring peace to the world. And so the positions have been passed down through the generations, each one mirroring the original group.

At least in public we do, in private we take a break from the acting we usually have to do and get to be ourselves. I'm not really sure where the tradition of copying the personalities of the original Vassals came from, but it can be very annoying for us when we're selected for our compatibility with the Sacred Power, not our personality. Take me for example, I'm truly a kind person who cares about everyone, but as the Sacred Fairy I'm supposed to be playful and mischievous and only kind to those who do me a kindness first. It can be very hard not to try and help others just because they've done nothing for me. I'm also supposedly deathly afraid of the Dark Beings, but will still fight them when I must, which is quite true. I'm scared of Dark Beings, but I'd prefer to purify them quickly to get away from them. I don't think that those who have been twisted by darkness or have already died should be forced to suffer more.

I was officially given the duties of the Sacred Fairy, becoming the 43rd Fairy, when I turned seventeen and I will turn nineteen this fall. I was trained for ten years to do this job and I think my master would be proud of me. She's not dead or anything, it was just time for the next generation to step up, so now I'm the Sacred Fairy.

Today, three of the Six Vassals, which includes me, are escorting the Crown Prince of our base kingdom, Karakura, and his cousin from a summer home back to the capital, Naruki City. It's not really something we Vassals would normally be appointed to do, but there have been some strange happenings around the two that necessitate our presence as a caution for extra protection. I heard that several Royal Knights that were assigned to protect the two reported feeling a powerful Dark presence during the events, so that's why we Vassals were called in. Tatsuki thinks that it's just the king demanding extra protection for his heir and the Church being unable to refuse because the pope accepted the job. Tatsuki, by the way, is the Sacred Dragon. Lots of people says it suits her because part of her name can mean dragon. The Sacred Dragon is supposed to be fierce on the battlefield, motherly and forgiving off of it. Tatsuki is actually just fierce. She doesn't like to put up with nonsense, jerks, or idiots, but because of the image of the Sacred Dragon, she has to be nice to them unless she's fighting. We've been friends since the beginning of our training, even though the Fairy and Dragon aren't supposed to always get along because the Fairy's mischievousness can be kind of mean and troublesome.

It's really a rather nice day out today and I find it easy to play the frolicking nature of the Fairy today because I'd be happy to run about having fun today. So I swing my legs and happily hum from my seat beside the driver of the carriage the Prince and his cousin ride in. Tatsuki rides her horse beside me and the carriage with a kindly smile on her face. I can tell that this smile is currently genuine, she usually has to fake it. Rukia rides on the other side of the carriage, looking dignified and beautiful. Rukia is the Sacred Maiden, who is always calm and refined, even in the heat of battle. The Maiden has no interest in men and thinks them beneath her. In reality, Rukia is very rough and fiery more often than not and she doesn't think all men are bad, just most of them. She's also supposed to really dislike the Fairy because I'm unrefined and childish, but we actually get along rather well.

We turned a bend in the road, only to find the way blocked by a hooded figure. The figure gives me a strange feeling, something brushing on my consciousness that I know but can't seem to name. Tatsuki looks to me, a curious light in her eyes, but I only give a slight shake of my head. I don't want to worry her if there's really nothing to worry about. One of the knights ahead of us calls out to the figure, telling them to move. The figure remains still, giving no sign of having heard him.

"I repeat, move out of the way! You block the path of the Crown Prince, now move!"

The figure imperceptibly stiffens for a moment and I sense a pulse of Dark energy. Before I can scream in warning, the figure charges, blade of black energy forming in its hand. The figure quickly cuts down the lead knight, leaving a large gash in his chest, continuing forward towards the carriage. Its moves quickly, movements smooth and practiced as it cuts through the knights before it. I'm not sure if what we're facing. It could be a powerful Dark Mage or some sort of humanoid Dark Being, possibly Undead. I shudder and pray that it is not an Undead. I fear the Undead the most, especially since three years ago when my brother was summoned as an Undead during one of my missions and I was forced to fight him. The figure vaults up onto one of the carriage horse's back, moving to take out the driver when Tatsuki makes her move.

"Sacred Dragon Claws!" she yells, swiping at the figure as her Sacred White Dragon armor appears on her. The claws of light miss the figure as it dodges back, jumping off the horse, but snags the hood, tugging it off the figure's face. Now exposed is ebony black hair long enough to tuck into the lower face and neck is covered in gray bandages with tooth like protrusions that seem to secure it to the person's face. I can't tell for sure, but the face seems angular, suggesting that our aggressor is male.

He lands on the ground, ready to face off with Tatsuki, not noticing that Rukia has dismounted and snuck up behind him. She slashes with her pure white sword, leaving a gash in his cloak and releasing a small spray of blood. He quickly moves away, tossing the cloak away to distract them and give him space. He is now fully revealed, so I can definitely say he's a guy. The bandages can be seen wrapping all around his body from the open front of his black coat with red lining. His pants are also black with a pentagon shaped buckle inscribed with a skull pattern. He also had black boots on. I can now see that his hair reaches down to his waist.

Once he has some distance, he changes his stance, preparing to rush in again. He moves even faster this time, quickly by-passing the line of Royal Knights that formed while Rukia's attack distracted him. When Tatsuki makes to strike him again with her Sacred Dragon Claws, he parries with his energy blade an continues forward.

"Santen Kesshun!" I chant, generating a shield of golden light between us. He smashes his blade into the barrier, causing it to crack, and I see his eyes up close, feeling a tremor run down my spine.

He's _Undead_.

You can tell if and what kind of Undead you face by their eyes, if the state of their body doesn't make it obvious. The most basic Undead is no more than a puppet to its creator's will has pure black eyes, there is no other color. They just have black orbs where eyes should be. Undead who are slaves of their master's will but still have thought have eyes that seem to glow and burn in the sea of black that should be the whites of their eyes. Reapers have blood red eyes that burn with all-consuming hate in seas of black that slowly turns back to white as they gain power. Dark Reapers don't need to be told apart by their eyes, their form will mark them as inhuman.

More than that, he's a _Reaper_.

His eyes are a dark red, burning with hate, in gray pools, though I can somehow tell it's not for me. Even so, I flinch back, shield cracking further as fear claims me. My brother was left with his intelligence and his eyes were red, so facing eyes so similar to his rattles me to my core.

He strikes my shield once more, causing it to shatter, but before he can attack again, Rukia shoots shards of ice at him, causing him to back down once more. Tatsuki doesn't give him a chance to rest, dive-bombing him from the sky and just barely raking her claws into his leg before swerving away from his strike and back into the sky using the wings on her armor to clip his shoulder as she ascends. He swirls and strikes Rukia, who had tried to take him from behind again, cutting open her shoulder. He ducks another aerial strike from Tatsuki and skips away from a barrage of blades swiping at him from the remaining knights, letting lose a growl of frustration. I feel fear crawl up my spine as I sense him amassing Dark energy. He swings his blade and a wave of Dark energy flies from the blade in a crescent, taking down all the knights. I notice how some of the downed Royal Knights are struggling to regain their feet and rejoin the fight, not knowing that this enemy is beyond them.

"Stay back!" I desperately call to them. "He's a Reaper! If you would stand again, take the Crown Prince and his cousin to safety!" I hop down from the carriage, motioning for the driver to take them away, hoping that we can hold the Reaper. It's not that we're weak, but this one is fairly far along in development, making it strong enough to require more than one of us. More than that, whoever he was before must have been a skilled warrior because he fights _very_ well.

Tatsuki and Rukia have kept him busy as I deal with the Royal Knights, but he notices when the carriage starts to leave and starts fighting harder to clear them out of the way. His attacks become increasingly more powerful, forcing Tatsuki and Rukia back and my shields can barely hold out against him. Fear is mounting higher and higher in me. _We can't beat him. We can't win. Get away. Get away!_ My mind keeps screaming at me. With a powerful stroke he sends Tatsuki colliding into Rukia and they land at my feet. He swiftly approaches, breaking my shield in the first strike, and aims for the finishing blow.

_We're going to die._

The sword swings down, but never connects. The Reaper is sent dodging backwards as a rain of shining blue arrows is fired upon him from behind. I see Uryu standing on the road before us, silver bow in hand. Uryu is the Sacred Archer, a cool and collected individual who is a master strategist and humble, even in loss. The Archer is also shy of women, so he doesn't hang around them much. Uryu is actually very prideful, so he avoids losing and situations that require him to be humble as much as possible. He also has no problem with women. In fact, he designs woman's clothing really well.

I can't describe how happy I was to see him at that moment. The reaper looked at the three of us as Tatsuki and Rukia staggered back to their feet and Uryu flashed to our side, firing shots as he moved to dissuade the Reaper from trying anything. The Reaper stares at us some more, eyes burning into us, before turning and flashing away faster than any of us could follow.

"We have to stop him from attacking the Prince!" I panic, not knowing how we could stop the Reaper if he's so fast. "Come on, we have to hurry!"

"It's okay, Orihime." Uryu placates me, placing his hands on my shoulders. "I had some of the Church mages teleport the carriage to remove the Crown Prince and his cousin from harm's way before coming out here. They should have already brought them to safety." I calm down and nod. We haven't failed our mission then. We would have just teleported them in the first place if it didn't take up so much energy.

"Ugh. Damn. I didn't think a Reaper would be that strong." Tatsuki moans as she rubs her shoulder, a pained look on her face. "_And_ we're going to have to hunt the bastard down and finish him off."

"Damn it. I don't' even wanna think about facing that thing again." Rukia groans, placing her hand over her injured shoulder.

"We can't complain." Uryu calmly states. "It's our duty as the Six Sacred Vassals of Light to purify all Undead. That includes Reapers. Besides, we can't allow him to run free and become a Dark Reaper. Can you imagine how much worse it'd be then?" Tatsuki sighs and Rukia huffs, but they get it. "Now let's get back to Naruki City and the Temple."

* * *

_So this story is inspired and based off a manga I read recently called **L****egend of the Sun Knight. **It's a fairly funny, yet cool, little series based off a novel. I only read the manga, so I can't say anything about the novels. They have a bunch of knights with pre-set personalities that most of them don't truly match up to, so they were trained to fake it, and they kind of fight undead, so you can see the really obvious parallels from my fic if you've read it. If you want to read **Legend of the Sun Knight** it's on mangapanda dot com._

**Please comment/review**


	7. A False Princess

**Author's Note**

Hope you guys like fantasy cause here's another fantasy AU. Enjoy!

* * *

In the kingdom of Kaizou, there are many different intelligent races who once lived together. However, a very long time ago, those with magic and those without came to be at odds with each other, as well as those who looked like the humans and those who looked more beastly. The factions fought each other, shedding much blood in their attempts to dominate and wipe out the others. This continued for decades until a human King and his most trusted generals that hailed from all races stepped up and ended the battles with their strength. Peace retook the land under the stewardship of this King and his generals. When the King's life was coming to a close, he and his generals selected a new, human King to keep this peace by enchanting a pendent to select the one who would take the best care of his kingdom. They limited the selection to humans because the King believed that the weakest make the wisest, for those with strong fangs may sharpen them, but those without can only rely on their wits to survive. Of all the races, the humans were the weakest both in magic and physically. This tradition was honored and followed for generations, until one day, the pendent disappeared. The people searched high and low for the pendent and its thief, but could never find it, so when the current king died, they gathered all those descended from one of their kings that were between the ages of 16 and 30, for the pendent had never picked younger or older than that, and held a tournament. Each Prince and Princess was allowed to select a champion to compete for them and the winner would take the throne. The royals quickly set out to find the most powerful beings they could to be their champions, destroying the chances for those who would rely on their own strength. Because of this unfairness, the rules to the tournament were changed after the first one was held so that champions had to be under 30 years of age, thus removing many of the beings who had gained colossal strength through longevity from competing and decimating the tournament. As time passed, those descended from Kings created royal houses for themselves and gained much wealth and prestige as they competed for the throne. They prospered and made miniature kingdoms that answered to the King of Kaizou. However, as this occurred, the races who didn't look human and possessed longevity noticed that their status was being reduced to little more than animals as they could hardly compete or earn favor as champions. They were steadily degraded and outcast until they were hardly considered people anymore. It became the fervent wish of those oppressed by this change to gain a royal who would champion their peoples and restore the peace and prosperity that some could remember from before the loss of the pendent, but no such royal could be found. Their cries went unanswered for centuries until an opportunity presented itself and they chased after it with all they had. To free themselves, to return peace, they would see a false princess crowned.

* * *

"You useless piece of trash!" a girl with long black pigtails screamed at another young woman, knocking her to the deck of the river barge. "Can't you do anything right? I said I wanted the periwinkle blue shawl, not the sky blue one!" she screeches, hitting the other girl once more. "You must be the most useless servant ever!" She lets out a frustrated sigh. "You know what? I've changed my mind. I don't want a shawl. You're to go back to work serving at the party. And you better not mess up _this_ time." she threatens.

"Yes ma'am, Miss Loly." the young woman quietly answers.

"Good. I don't want my congratulatory party to be ruined. It would be horrible for the future Queen to have had a party that was ruined by a stupid servant." she replies, stalking off for the upper decks, her lacey pink dress swishing around her.

The young woman carefully picks herself up, trying to avoid pressing on any of the many bruises she has acquired in the service of her cruel mistress. She dusts off the old, worn brown dress that she wears. It's the nicest one she has, all the others have patches on them from where they've been ripped and torn. Dust and grim have dulled her skin and hair, making her look rather unremarkable, like someone just picked up off the streets in the slums, though it is far from the truth. She is a beautiful girl, but the years of hard and dirty work have covered up that beauty.

She quietly pads down the deck to the kitchen area so that she can help serve the food and drink to the party-goers. Lord and Lady Aivirrne have thrown this party on their river barge to celebrate Miss Loly's entry into the Great Tournament and all the nobles beneath them are attending in hopes of gaining favor with a candidate to the throne. She personally thinks it's silly. They will support whoever looks like they may gain the throne and quickly abandon any who flounder and struggle to win. She's sure that they will attend every competitor's party they're invited to in a bid to make good relations with the future ruler. She thinks if they want the favor of their ruler that they should look after their people. What ruler wouldn't be pleased with a person who cares for their people? She shakes off these thoughts as she enters the kitchen area, receiving a pitcher of red wine before going to the party area to serve it.

The Lords and Ladies chatter and dance to the small orchestra on deck, looking resplendent in their fancy clothes. It is easy to see that they are the people who want for little, that they are the wealthy who look for more wealth. She watches the women swirl about, fine silk, cotton, and lace following in their wake as she edges around the dance floor, offering refills to the guests. The men are dressed just as fine, with suits cut to fit them just right, even those with more belly than most. The lights on the deck reflect off the jewelry that they all wear, flashing as they move about. She has to admit that she's surprised so many of them are still dancing with all the layers they're wearing, even if the summer air is cooled some by the coming night and river.

After a while, the guests were called to take their seats so that the dinner feast could be served. She moved to stand behind her mistress and the champion, waiting to pour wine for them when their current glass ran out. Loly was the first of the two to finish and as the young woman bent forward and started to pour the wine, the champion pinched her behind causing her to jerk in surprise. The wine sloshed all over herself and Loly, staining their dresses red. Some of the guests laughed at the accident and Loly's look of pure, venomous hatred had the servant spouting apology after apology as others came forward to clean up their mistress and move the poor servant girl away to serve elsewhere. The feast resumed without too much incident and she did her best to stay well away from her mistress and her wrath.

It is dark out and the stars are twinkling in the velvet sky as she came back from serving her sixth pitcher of wine. For all the work that she's had to do and her little slip up, she's found the evening rather enjoyable. For once she has barely seen hide or hair of her mistress and has successfully avoided punishment for her small accident earlier. She smiles as she leans against the rail, watching the lantern lights and colors of the party-goers reflect off of the river's rippling surface, dancing like the fairies from the old stories her brother would tell her. She closes her eyes, wishing that fairies were real. Maybe if they were, they would take her away and let her dance and be happy with them in their magical gardens that were guarded by dragons because the dragons would like their dances but don't want them to be ruined by mean people. And maybe she'd meet a wizard who'd use a spell to turn a pumpkin into a beautiful dress so she could go dancing with a handsome, magical prince. She was so lost in spinning her own fairytale that she failed to notice her approaching mistress.

"Well, well, well. If it isn't the little bitch who had the nerve to try and ruin my party." Loly venomously says, heels clicking on the planks as she moves forward. The servant whirls around, bracing her back against the rail as Loly corners her against it.

"Th-th-that wasn't m-my fault!" she squeaks out. "T-the ch-champion st-startled me. It wa-was an a-ac-accident!"

"Oh? And how exactly did he 'startle' you?" Loly asks, putting her face up in her servant's face, sneering at her.

"He… h-he… he…" she stutters, afraid to admit what happened.

" 'He, he' what? Come on, spit it out!" Loly commands.

"H-he… hepinchedmybutt!" she quickly blurts out, hands going over her mouth as soon as she finishes, face going red. Loly stands there for a moment, trying to comprehend what her servant said. Her expression turns even more furious as understanding finally dawns on her and she slaps the other girl.

"You expect me to believe _that_?! There's no way he'd do that." she hisses, grabbing the collar of the other's dress. "You're not even pretty! I think that's just some lame excuse you're using to try and slip out of your mess." Loly steps up even closer, forcing the servant to lean out over the rail. "I'm done with having such a pathetic bitch for a servant that only causes trouble."

A sinister smile spreads across Loly's face as she pushes her servant, upsetting her balance and sending her tumbling overboard. "Good-bye~!" Loly croons as the servant falls into the water, making a splash before the currents pull her away and she struggles to stay afloat.

She panics. She doesn't know how to swim and her dress is getting heavy, pulling her beneath the surface. She struggles and kicks, trying to keep afloat, to keep getting air into her lungs. She gasps as the water goes into her mouth and up her nose. The river current is much stronger than it looked from the decks of the barge. The cold water is gradually numbing her, even with her vigorous struggles. It is a losing battle she fights. She struggles on, but the strength is fading from her limbs as the cold and lack of oxygen set in. She struggles for the surface one last time, her hand reaching to the night sky and stars, before unconsciousness takes her.

* * *

Her consciousness slowly returns. She can feel warm sunlight on her back and something solid beneath her. She can hear voices too.

"–don't know why we had to fish her out." a strangely echoing voice complains. "The other's will probably fight us about it." She can hear a grin in his voice as he mentions fighting.

"There is nothing that says we have to bring her back to _our_ village. We are simply doing a deed that may gain us some favor in return. You're violent wishes are beside the point and unnecessary." replies a calmer, more neutral voice.

"Will you two shut up?" a third voice cuts in, sounding much like the first voice and very annoyed. "We saved her 'cause it was the right thing to do! Any problems can be dealt with as we get to 'em." He says in an authoritive tone.

"We should plan ahead. It's best to be prepared." the second voice advises.

"Che, screw planning!" the first voice cuts in. "We beat problems to a bloody pulp. That's a good plan."

"That's hardly a plan at all. There's no need to uselessly spill blood, you moron." the second scathingly replies.

"Useless? It's not useless!" the first yells back. "It makes sure that problems become scared of us and it makes _me_ feel better." It says as if that's an unarguable answer.

"Oh my god. Why do I have to be stuck between you two?" the third voice laments.

"That's cause you were first, dear Kingy." The first voice replies in a fake, sugary tone.

"He's right. As the primary, you'll always be in the center." The second evenly replies.

The third voice groans. "Don't remind me. It's bad enough having just you two, I can't imagine having more of us around."

She feels a shudder go through the surface she's lying on. It is then that she notices that whatever she's on is covered in fur. It's also moving. She screams as her eyes fly open and goes tumbling off her perch and into the water.

"Shit!"

"Girl overboard."

"Grab her!"

She flounders in the water for a bit before something snags the back of her dress and lifts her out of the water. She dangles a few feet above the surface as her rescuers head for shore. Once the shore is beneath her, she is gently set down on the bank. She shivers, fearing to turn around because she knows her rescuers, or at least one of them, isn't human. There's no other way to explain being dangled like that over the water.

_Just what was I saved by?_

She peaks over her shoulder as she turns around. Dragons! Maybe her fantasies are –no. That's not a dragon, it's a hydra! She stares in wonder and fear at her rescuer. He, for the voices had all been male, had just the three heads. The heads are triangular, covered in white scales with black stripes running down through the eyes and down the throat with white, bull-like horns protruding forward. Except for their eye color and the color of the mane running down their long necks, the heads are identical. His right head had a white mane and golden eyes, the middle head an orange mane and brown eyes, and the left head had a black mane and sky blue eyes. At the base of the necks was a collar of red fur and on his chest was a sun-like pattern of the black scales. His large paws rested on the bank before her, tipped with black claws and wrists enclosed in more red fur. The legs were strong and muscular. She couldn't see the rest of him as she was too focused on the heads, though she thought she caught a flicker of a tail tip coated in the dark scales out of the corner of her eye.

"Are you okay?" the center head asks, concern in his eyes and she recognizes him as the third voice. She nods, still muted by the presence of such a creature.

"Great. She's fine. Can we get going? As much as I love a fight, taking on the Demon Cat when she's pissed isn't really all that fun." the right head says, looking downstream and she knows he was the first voice.

"I thought your plan was to beat problems into a bloody pulp. Are you giving up on it so soon?" the left head taunts, gaining the attention of the right head as she finalizes the left head as the second voice.

"Shut up, you bastard!" the right growls, snapping at the left's neck.

"Oh? Are you going to try your _wonderful _plan on me?"

"Sure as hell am! I'll show you it's a good plan!"

The two heads start nipping at each, shouting insults at each other while the center head pulls back. She can't help but think that the heads act like bickering siblings.

"SHUT UP!" the center head roars, stopping the other two almost immediately. "God! Can't you two not argue for ten minutes?" He shakes his head while the other two go quiet. "Sorry about that. It kind of happens when you're stuck with each other all the time." He gently says, trying for a reassuring grin, though it comes off a bit mixed considering his sharp, pointy teeth. "Um, so you're okay." She nods in agreement. "Erm, if you don't mind me asking, why were you drowning in the river last night?"

She shivered a bit, recalling the struggle to stay afloat. "I-I was serving on a-a barge. I sp-spilled some w-wine on my m-mis-mistress." The right head cackles at this and the left nips at him to quiet him. "She ca-caught me later an-and pushed m-me overboard." She breaks into tears as she finishes, bringing her hands to her face.

The center head growls. She can see that the other heads are also upset by her unfortunate turn of events. It brings a warm little feeling to her chest to have someone care for her well-being, even someone as unusual as this. The hydra lets her cry for a bit before speaking.

"We're headed downstream, you're welcome to come with us, Miss…" the center head trails off, not knowing what to call her.

"O-oh!" she perks up, wiping away her tears. "I'm Orihime Inoue, nice to meet you." She bows her head a little bit. "And… it would be nice… to travel with you, if you'll let me." she shyly finishes. The center head grins while the right huffs and the left just eyes her.

"We would not have offered if we didn't intend to carry through with it." the left says.

"Alright. Let's go." The center head moves forward and carefully grabs the back of her dress, lifting her up to bring her around to be gently deposited at in the fur at the base of the necks. She grabs on to the damp fur as the hydra moves back out to the center of the river, heads held up like the proud bow of a ship.

"I'm Ichigo, by the way. The one with white hair is Zangetsu and the one with black hair is Tensa. It's nice to meet you, Orihime."

* * *

_It's just so much fun turning Ichigo into different mythical creatures. I originally planned to have Ichigo as a dragon in this one, but then I realized a hydra was so much cooler because I could then include both parts of Zangetsu as the extra heads. So different characters will belong to different races. (Hail the mighty wizard Urahara!) I might actually employ some Original Characters to be royals and champions. If I do use OCs, I'll probably let people submit their own to build a repertoire, crediting all contributions if/when used. For those of you that may be thinking it, yes, I did take the wisdom versus strength thing from **No Game No Life**. I just finished watching that today and it was super good, I can't wait for season 2. Those of you that haven't watched it, GO WATCH IT! I think that's all here._

**Please comment/review, I need to know which story I should start, otherwise my story shots might become longer than my actual story.**


	8. A Different Story

**Author's Note**

Okay, another story has clawed its way out of my mind and into a word document. Enjoy!

* * *

Life was good. Well, as good as one could expect when you haunted your own house, he supposed. It had been hard, dying and all. His sisters couldn't really see him, well, people in general couldn't really see him. His mom could see him and his dad could always tell when he was there. After a while his sisters had learned to see or sense him and he had made one friend among the living. It was harder when his mom died because he hadn't been fast enough, strong enough, but that was almost six months ago now and he had worked himself to the bone to make sure he didn't lose anyone else due to his inability. He shook his head, trying to dismiss those morose thoughts, but they always snuck up on him in the middle of the day when the living are busy and he, as a spirit, had naught to do. He supposed the thoughts got a little more insistent around this time of year, after all, his death anniversary was about a month from now and that day had changed _everything_.

* * *

_It was June 17__th__ and it had been raining heavily for days, this day was no different. He was walking home from the dojo with his mother, bundled up in a raincoat while they both had umbrellas to shield themselves from the deluge of water. Even with the rain, he had been happy. He had finally landed a hit against his rival and friend of the past five years, Arisawa Tatsuki, in their sparring match today and he was spending time with his mother. Things were looking up in his life. He was steadily getting better at karate, he was getting better at protecting his little five-year-old sisters from bullies, and his birthday was less than a month away, meaning he'd finally graduate to a double digit age, making him a 'big kid.'_

_They walked along the river as they headed home, the boy telling his mother all about his karate lesson when a truck went through a particularly large puddle splashing water onto him. After his mother had wiped the water off his face, they joined hands and continued on their merry way. It wasn't until they were a little over halfway home that things started to go wrong._

_The boy was a special one, though he didn't really realize it at the time. His parents had strong spiritual powers and, as their child, he had inherited a great power of his own. It was untapped at the time, in fact, he knew nothing of this power, but it allowed him to see spirits since the day he was born. So when he saw the girl who looked like she was going to jump into river, he didn't pause to consider whether she was really alive or not, because he didn't know how to tell the difference or that it really mattered._

_He had spotted the girl and, with his growing sense of responsibility and desire to live up to his name, he jumped the rail to try and prevent her from jumping into the river. His mother's cry for him to return to her side was unheeded and unheard, for as she called out a spike of fur shot out of the river from behind the girl, cutting open the boy's throat and killing him almost instantly. Before the monster, who had removed itself from the river, revealing the girl to be a lure attached to its head, could devour the soul of the recently departed boy, it felt a powerful presence with an absolute malice directed towards it spike up. Knowing that the presence had far more power than it and not wanting to risk getting killed before its special ability could take effect, the monster fled, leaving the soul of the boy standing in the rain, staring at the spot the hole it had disappeared into was, a chain dangling from his chest. Both the mother and boy stared at the scene before them, frozen in shock, the boy from the monster who had attacked him making his chest hurt briefly before vanishing, the mother from the fact that her son had been killed before her very eyes because the power she had had all her life had suddenly deserted her, leaving her helpless to save her child completely._

_The mother quickly rushed to her son's side, hoping that things were not as bad as they had seemed. As the boy turned to his mother, looking for some kind of comfort or help, a couple of people gathered, gasping and pointing towards him. It confused the boy, even more so when one of the ladies who had showed up came forward and put an arm around his mother's shoulder, speaking soft words of comfort. When a man moved past him and bent down to look at something on the ground, the boy turned to look and blanched. It was him with his throat slit open, laying in a pool of his own blood._

"_Kaa-san, what's going on?" he pleaded with her. "Why is there another me with his neck all bloody?" he was beginning to panic some, his hands mindlessly coming up to grasp the chain coming out of his chest. This action seemed to snap his mother out of her stupor. She collapsed forward in a good act, tugging the soul of her son close to her as she appeared to be facing his dead body._

"_Oh Ichigo." She sobbed. "You're dead." She carefully stroked the little spirit's back. Sneaking her hand into his, making sure to give it a tight squeeze that said '_stay with me, don't wander off_' to the now petrified boy. With some more theatrics, she was able to get a bit of space as the people called for the correct authorities. She took quick advantage of this space to tell her son what he needed to hear while the people and his body were dealt with._

"_Ichigo, I need you to listen to me sweetie. Listen to Okaa-san." She urgently whispered, turning the boy's fearful, tear-stained face to her. "Kaa-san has to deal with these people, but they can't see you right now. In a little bit, a man with a green striped bucket hat will come here. His name is Urahara Kisuke and I want you to go with him. Tou-san or I will come to pick you up when we're done with this, okay?" The boy meekly nods, scared but determined to listen to her because he's never heard her sound so worried before. "That's a good boy, Ichigo. Kaa-san loves you." She whispers, placing a kiss on his forehead._

_As the authorities arrive, so too does the man that his mother described. He heads towards the man, looking back to his mother and receiving a small nod of confirmation from her, takes the man's hand and departs._

* * *

It was late at night before his parents came to get him and they hadn't explained what had happened to him until later the next day. It had been disconcerting to say the least. He had gone from being a live human being to a powerful soul who had to awaken his shinigami powers if he wanted to stay with his family. That had been a grueling two weeks before Urahara had given him the sword that had stabilized his presence, what with the preparations for his own funeral and the fact that going to school would have been awkward at best. He had tried his best to help around the house in that time, but his sisters and their visitors couldn't see him, so it was often more trouble than help. He was also often scolded for his new nervous habit of tugging the chain in his chest, though they didn't explain why it was bad until the fourth day. After that he'd barely even touch the chain, usually only to count the number of links on it every morning when he woke up and every night before he went to sleep. He only ever lost one link in those two weeks out of forty, but the one had scared his nine almost ten year old self pretty badly. The thought of becoming a monster that would want to eat his family terrified him that badly. After Urahara gave him the sword, called an asauchi, it had been barely five minutes before his chain had faded out of existence. This had freaked him out and taken a lot of work from his mom to calm him down enough to make him realize that the disappearance of his chain because of the sword did not make him a hollow.

So life, or death he supposed, went on. With his stabilization as a shinigami, he no longer had to worry about becoming a hollow or being passed on to the Soul Society. He went to Urahara's shop, called Urahara Shoten, everyday instead of school, though it practically was school with some combat and spiritual power lessons added into the curriculum. His parents told him more about the peoples he was descended from and he learned what he could from them and Urahara and his people. He never did too well in lessons on controlling his power, but any physical techniques he learned quickly. They kept his learning at a steady pace, making sure he had mastered a lesson before moving to the next. His only complaint in his schooling was the lack of Quincy techniques, due to his mother's inability to demonstrate compounded with his poor control. Apparently those his mother used to associate with weren't willing to teach a hybrid like him.

About a year after his death, his sister, Karin, was able to see a blur where he stood. Another eight months and she could see him clearly while her twin, Yuzu, was able to see him as a blur. They never really progressed beyond this point, but that was okay with him. They were safer having such small amounts of reiryoku. They only needed enough to tell where he was and hear his voice in his opinion, though he supposed it was kind of nice to have the full interaction he did have with his mother and Karin.

He hadn't minded that life. The only thing he felt it lacked was friendship. Sure, he had followed after his old friends a bit, but they couldn't see him and he didn't want to scare them with his invisible presence. So he stuck close to his family and mentors, clinging to those bonds that he had after his death. It wasn't until he was twelve that he got to meet someone new.

* * *

_He had been watching over his sisters while they played in the park at the request of his mother. The girls had played and had fun and no one had suspected he was more than their shared imaginary friend. They had been heading home since the sky had begun to drizzle on them when three high school boys had cornered the twins in a small street on the way home. The boys jeered and taunted his sisters, but he couldn't do anything because it was one of the rules: _Don't interact with the living unless they start interacting with you or someone's in life threatening danger._ So he had to miserably watch his sisters get pushed around by the older boys. When one of the boys took Yuzu's doll, Karin was quick to kick the boy in the shins. Hissing in pain, the high schooler backhanded her, knocking her into a wall with enough force to daze her and cause a small trickle of blood to run down her temple. _

_He lost it. He had never felt such burning fury in his life. It pulsed through his being like a monster come to life as he lashed at with his right hand, newly formed claws gouging the boy's chest as his new found tail quickly lashed into the other two boys, slamming them into the walls. He didn't notice how the hand's skin was white or the fur tuft around it. He didn't notice the bone mask forming over the right side of his face as it steadily spread. He didn't notice how his eyes had changed from soft brown to bright gold in seas of black. He just wanted these boys to _hurt_ for hurting his baby sister, for tormenting both his sisters. A growl slipping up his throat as the boys panicked, trying to figure out what hit them, giving him a sadistic pleasure as he watched their fear. _

_The spell was broken when he heard a whimper of fear behind him. Turning around, he saw his sisters' fear filled eyes locked on to him. He looked down, finally noticing his hand, the feel of the tail that was poised behind him, and reaching up, the mask that coated the right side of his face. Having seen hollows, he knew what he was transforming into, even if he didn't understand _how_ it was possible. Fearing for his sisters' lives, he fled. He ran as fast as he could from them, scared he would try to eat them. He didn't stop until he reached the banks where he had died, where he sat down, pulling his knees up to his chest and curling his tail around himself as the heavens opened up and poured down on him._

_He wasn't sure how long he sat there, frightened in the rain, but it was long enough for him to get soaked to the bone._

"_Are you okay?" a soft, timid voice calls and he perks his head up to look at them. There was a young girl, probably about his age, with shoulder length auburn hair in a black dress holding an umbrella looking at him. He was truly surprised, in all the time he'd been dead, only people that his parents had introduced him to had been able to see him. At a loss for words, he simply pointed the clawed hand at himself to confirm she meant him and the girl nodded. He still didn't know what to say. She seemed to understand this as she spoke again._

"_Can I sit down here?" she gestured to the grass besides him and before he could object, tell her he was a monster and she needed to get away, she sat herself down beside him, moving the umbrella to shield them both._

"_That's better isn't it?" she asks with a smile he can tell is forced. It doesn't even touch the sadness in her eyes. "Now you're out of the rain, Yokai-san." He can't help the laugh coming out of his throat. It feels so preposterous that this girl would come near him when she's already aware on some level that he's a monster. "What's so funny?"_

"_You. Why would you even come near me when you already know I'm a monster? I could hurt you, maybe even kill you, you know." He says, looking her in the eye for only a moment before hiding his face in his knees once more._

"_You looked really sad. Even monsters shouldn't be sad." She softly replies, hesitantly reaching out and rubbing his shoulder. "Wanna tell me what's wrong?"_

_He's not really sure how to react. He knows that he's dangerous, that as a hollow he should want to eat her, but the truth, he realizes, is that he has felt none of the urges that a hollow should fell besides the one for violence when he first changed. So going with the comfort she's offered he explains._

"_I… I don't normally look like… this." He gestured to the clawed hand, partial mask, and tail. "There were some mean… high schoolers picking on my little sisters. I got really mad and I… hurt them. It scared my sisters, me too, so I… ran." He haltingly told her. Hearing a sniff, he turns only to find that the girl is crying._

"_That's so sad. I'm sure your sisters are really worried about you! You should go home to them." She encourages and, somehow, it makes him feel better, but there is one thing still bothering him._

"_Why're _you_ sad?"_

"_Huh? Me? Your story was sad. I'm no–" she scrambles to respond._

"_You were sad when you got here. So let me return the favor and tell me what's wrong." He stubbornly says. She looks close to tears and her lower lip trembles._

"_M-my onii-chan's f-funeral was to-today. A-an-and I m-miss him s-so muuuuch!" she wails the last word, tears flooding her eyes and running down her face. He pulls her head against his shoulder and she clings to his shirt as he whispers comforting words while gently stroking her back, careful of the claws that adorn his hand, and grabs the umbrella with his tail to keep it over their heads. After a while, her crying lessens to sniffles and the occasional sob._

"_Better now?" he softly asks. She nods her head against his shoulder before slowly letting go and retreating to her previous sitting position. She gently takes the umbrella from the grip of his tail._

"_Shouldn't you change back so you can go home?" He nervously grips his tail, unsure of how to answer._

"_I… I don't know how." He quietly admits, a small tremor in his voice._

"_Hmmmm," she lets out as she brings a hand to her chin in a classic thinking position. "Oh! I know! My onii-chan told me a story about a transforming prince that was changed back by a princess!" Before he can try to figure it out, she leans over and kisses the mask on the side of his face. He turns a deep red in embarrassment, but, surprisingly enough, the mask cracks and falls off, fading away as do the rest of the transformed limbs._

"_It worked!" she cheers, pumping a fist into the air, not noticing how red his face is. "Just like in _The Frog Prince_!" She smiles at him and he can't help but return it, still blushing deeply._

"_Th-thank you …" he trails off, realizing he doesn't know her name._

"_Hmm? Oh! I'm Inoue Orihime, nice to meet you!" she says, offering a hand to shake._

"_Kurosaki Ichigo." He says, grabbing her hand. "It was nice meeting you, but I guess I should be heading home now. Um, please don't tell anyone about me. I'm kinda a spirit, so most people can't see me. Ah, thanks again for the help and I'll see you around, hopefully." He starts to rush towards the end, still nervous about being kissed, before bolting out into the rain, heading home._

"_Bye, Kurosaki-kun!" she calls out, waving from under her umbrella._

* * *

Needless to say, his father and mentors teased him relentlessly over his new friend and the kiss. He made up with his sisters and found out that he was actually part hollow due to some troubles his mother had encountered and it was also the reason his father's powers were sealed. Training his hollow powers was added to his 'school' curriculum and time moved on. He also got to see more of Orihime and became good friends with her, though he got quite the shock when he found out that she was best friends with his old friend/rival, Tatsuki.

He sighed. It was just going to be one of those days where he got lost in the past. Might as well look at the recent past too.

* * *

_He had been out wandering the town when he had sensed the hollow's presence. He had started for it at a leisurely pace as another rule was: _Don't mess in the duties of shinigami unless it's right before you or the shinigami will die/is dead._ At least it was leisurely until he realized that the hollow's target was his mother. Once he realized that, he ran as fast as he could, utilizing his newly learned shunpo to push his speed to higher limits._

_Unfortunately, he arrived just in time to watch her soul get eaten. With a feral cry, he charged the hollow, drawing his still unnamed zanpakuto and allowing his hollow form to emerge. He severed the hollow's arm before it even realized he was there, roaring his fury at the one who had taken a piece of his heart. He charged again, but the hollow was prepared this time and swatted him away through a building, but not without getting its hand cut for its efforts. Using the time it was taking for the hybrid to dislodge himself from the rubble, the hollow retreated back to Hueco Mundo. _

_The hybrid roared his fury at his escaped prey. As he tried to storm off, find the _bastard_ and _shred him_, a dart became lodged in his side. Growling in fury, he rounded to find the shooter to be Urahara. Before he could take a step at his mentor, another dart stuck in to his shoulder, causing him to whirl once more finding another mentor, Tessai. A dart to his tail whipped him in another direction to find his third mentor, Yoruichi. He growled in irritation, instincts telling him to fight his way out, reason saying they were friends, not enemies. _

_In the end, he didn't have to decide as the sedative took effect and he fell unconscious. _

"_I'm sorry, Kurosaki-san." Urahara whispered._

* * *

Afterwards, he'd thrown quite the fit, first raging at Urahara, blaming him for not doing something to stop the hollow, until he ran out of energy and just broke down sobbing over his loss and how he couldn't do anything to prevent it.

It had taken a while to pull himself together, but he'd got himself into working order with the pledge in his heart to not lose anyone else. He stuck close to his remaining family and kept an eye out for Orihime. After his mother's funeral, he insisted on a faster paced curriculum for his shinigami training, so the pace had been upped. It helped some, but it would never fill the void she left.

He was getting stronger. He knew he was, but he still didn't feel like it was enough. _Probably because my zanpakuto still hasn't said anything coherent to me._ He had tried his best to reach the spirit of his blade, Urahara said he should be able to reach it considering that his zanpakuto didn't look like the regular asauchi anymore, but he never seemed able to reach it. Sometimes he thought he heard a voice from it, well two different voices if he was being honest, but neither had actually spoken to him.

He sighed once more, leaning back onto his hands, idly swinging his legs over the edge of the roof of his home. He supposed he should head over to Urahara's for today's training instead of sitting here, wallowing in the past. Shaking his head to clear it of those memories and thoughts he jumped down from the roof to go to his 'school,' not knowing that this night would once more change his world.

* * *

**Story Note**

_So this one's inspired by the many from the beginning rewrites I've read. I find it weird how if they let Ichigo die early, he's always a hollow, so I let him be his amazing hybrid self with the same focus on his shinigami side like cannon, but with a good bit of his other sides acknowledged. Ichigo wouldn't be super powerful at the beginning because he only got his real drive six months ago and Urahara and others have no reason to push him to his absolute limits yet in training to bring out his exponential growth rate. Instead they've been focusing on skill and trying to round him out, not that it has worked very well, but that's what they tried to do. Hmmm, I don't think there's much more to add to the concept explanation, so..._

**Please comment/review to encourage a full story for your favorite story shot.**


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